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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133892">The Forgotten Truth</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfprincesszola/pseuds/wolfprincesszola'>wolfprincesszola</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Not Really Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:47:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133892</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfprincesszola/pseuds/wolfprincesszola</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice Reed is an undercover cop who finds herself in Detroit, her childhood home again. How will she deal with it when her past comes face to face with her?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Connor (Detroit: Become Human)/Original Female Character(s), Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi! I’m starting a new book called The Forgotten Truth which takes place in the D:BH universe, 2 years after the events of D:BH take place. It’ll feature one of my OCs. There will be swearing in this story later on, so fair warning of that! I’ll try to update every week. I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What’s the update?”</p>
<p>“They’re going to Detroit.”</p>
<p>“Follow them. I’ll tell the Captain of the DPD. You’ll transfer there for this assignment before you come back here.”</p>
<p>“Which precinct?”</p>
<p>Her captain was quiet.</p>
<p>“Which precinct?” She asked again, this time more forcefully.</p>
<p>“I believe you know some people there.”</p>
<p>“Names?”</p>
<p>“Detective Gavin Reed.”</p>
<p>Her heart fell before she swallowed the frog in her throat, “I’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure? Detective, as your Captain, I am responsible for everything you do. I don’t want you to-”</p>
<p>“I’ll be FINE!”</p>
<p>“…whatever you say.”</p>
<p>She was quiet. “Is that all you need from me, Captain?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Thank you for the update. Good luck, Detective.”</p>
<p>She hung up the phone. She couldn’t let her past get in the way of her mission. It was irrational…and useless.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Falcon to Dipshit. I repeat, Falcon to Dipshit.”</p><p>“Can you tell your piece of shit you call a boyfriend to shut up, Nines?” A voice cut in. It was Hank’s, who was clearly annoyed with Gavin.</p><p>“Which one of us is Dipshit?” Connor’s voice asked.</p><p>“It’s you, Connor.” Gavin snorted.</p><p>Connor was about to retort when Nines replied, “You don’t have to use the codenames that Gavin gave us.”</p><p>“Listen up, Dipshit. 10:00, the man in black.”</p><p>“Got it.”</p><p>The four were on the lookout for what they assumed was the culprit of their most recent murder. Fowler had decided it was a good idea to pair the four up on the recent case because they were the best in the area.</p><p>“The man is walking in toward the Stratford Tower. I’m hacking the CCTV to track his location.”</p><p>There was silence before Connor came up with a number. The man was going to level 29.</p><p>“Dickhead, are we safe to go in?”</p><p>“For fuck’s sake, the next time you say that is my codename, I will personally find a way to murder you and get away with it.” Hank huffed, annoyed.</p><p>“Try me, boomer.”</p><p>“YOU DID NOT JUST-”</p><p>Before Hank could continue to shout at Gavin, there was a high squealing noise, cutting off all communication with all four of them. A sound frequency high enough to break the way of communication between people.</p><p>“Hello?” Gavin asked his mic.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>There was a ding.</p><p>Gavin grabbed his phone. It was a text message from Hank.</p><p>“Come in. Connor and Nines aren’t answering anything. I think someone knows we’re watching them.”</p><p>Gavin’s blood ran cold as he jumped down from his stakeout area and ran into the Tower. He went into the elevator, pressing on the level floor Connor had told him.</p><p>He fidgeted as he waited for the elevator.</p><p>Floor 20.</p><p>Another text came from Hank, “Holy shit.”</p><p>Floor 21.</p><p>A photo came through his phone. A picture of Connor.</p><p>Was he dead? Gavin couldn’t tell.</p><p>Floor 22.</p><p>The elevator opened and a woman came in. She kept her head down and Gavin didn’t study her, just fidgeting as he waited for the floors. She pressed Floor 30.</p><p>Floor 23.</p><p>Nothing from Hank.</p><p>Floor 24.</p><p>Nines wasn’t texting him.</p><p>Floor 25.</p><p>“Nines, are you alive?”</p><p>Floor 26.</p><p>The woman next to her opened her phone, texting. It was probably just a coincidence that Gavin had gotten a text at that exact time.</p><p>It was a photo. Nines on the floor (was he dead?) with the killers posing next to him like the sick fucks they could be. It almost seemed like that one meme where a person was posing next to a grave.</p><p>Gavin knew that the killers were probably Gen Z’s, so he had an approximate age.</p><p>Floor 27.</p><p>The woman seemed to drop her purse, making everything drop.</p><p>“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed, going to pick it up.</p><p>Why did her voice sound so familiar?</p><p>Gavin didn’t say anything, just looking straight ahead. He knew he was a dickhead.</p><p>Floor 28.</p><p>She managed to pick up her stuff.</p><p>Floor 29.</p><p>Gavin went to rush out, but not before he heard the woman’s voice again.</p><p>“Gavin, invest in a fidget cube. Didn’t your mom always tell you that fidgeting was unattractive?”</p><p>The door closed between the two people before he could even get a question out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gavin walked through the floor, trying to find any sign of the man in black.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>He looked at his phone, wondering if he could find out what happened with Nines and Connor.</p><p>He tried texting Hank. Hank didn’t answer.</p><p>Then again, Hank didn’t know how to even work the damn phone and it had taken him almost a week to get him to learn how to change the settings on his phone without Gavin’s help.</p><p>Man, why did he have to be stuck with the old fuck, the bitchass android, and his boyfriend?</p><p>As he walked around, he realized that the killers must’ve known that they were watching. Waited until they went into the elevator and went to floor 29 that they went to probably kill the only people he cared for in the slightest, and then went to the floor they needed to go to.</p><p>He remembered the woman.</p><p>Floor 30.</p><p>She must’ve been a part of that group. With that, he went towards the staircase, running up another floor to try and find anything.</p><p>When he got up, he cocked his gun, taking it out and holding it up as he burst through the door.</p><p>No one was there. No one but…his boyfriend, the bitchass android, and the old fuck. All tied up together and passed out.</p><p>Gavin went to kneel besides Hank. By the looks of it, he had been chloroformed.</p><p>He moved on to Connor. He slapped him. Nothing.</p><p>That usually woke up an android if they were in low power mode.</p><p>He tried the same thing with Nines. Nothing.</p><p>Gavin cursed, looking around for anything that could give him context clues.</p><p>There was a table behind his partners.</p><p>There were two SD cards on the table and a note with a date and time.</p><p>“keeP trying to follow us And we’ll do a lot woRse than Kill.”</p><p>The date was August 4th at 7:45 PM.</p><p>His heart panged with a twinge of familiarity, but he ignored it.</p><p>Gavin looked at the two SD cards, not wanting to touch it just yet. One was black and the other was white.</p><p>The black SD card had a model and serial number on it. To be more exact, it was Connor’s.</p><p>
  <i>RK800</i>
</p><p>
  <i>#313-248-317-51</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Activation Date: August 15, 2038</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Property of CyberLife</i>
</p><p>What did that mean?</p><p>He would have to ask his cousin, the creator of androids, about it.</p><p>The second one was Nines’.</p><p>
  <i>RK900</i>
</p><p>
  <i>#313-248-317-87</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Activation Date: November 12, 2038</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Property of CyberLife</i>
</p><p>His blood ran cold.</p><p>He went back to look at his boyfriend. He looked everywhere and noticed there was nothing wrong with Nines.</p><p>Just like the android victims.</p><p>He went to look at Nines’ neck where there was just a slot. Something was missing.</p><p>Just like the android victims.</p><p>Gavin realized that the group wasn’t killing androids.</p><p>Gavin tried to shake Hank awake, untying everyone. “WAKE THE FUCK UP, YOU ALCOHOLIC! WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM!”</p><p>Gavin huffed as he realized it was pointless. He reached over to his phone, texting an officer back at the precinct.</p><p>“Hey T, I need backup. My communicator seemed to break, all three of my partners are passed out, and I don’t know what the fuck happened.”</p><p>“Captain Fowler’s busy with a new transfer officer coming over today. Apparently, it’s worse because they’re undercover at the moment, so I can’t get the Captain’s approval for that.”</p><p>Gavin groaned as he tried waking up Hank again.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>This would be a long day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Please forgive me. I’m really bad at writing.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing<br/>I’m so bad at describing technology. I really don’t know what I’m writing, but whatever.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hey, there’s the asshole of the precinct!” He heard his friend, Tina, yell at him.</p><p>“Fuck off!” Gavin yelled as he flipped her off. He was supporting a passed-out Nines on the other arm.</p><p>“Aw…did the wittwe baby have a cwanky morning in the stakeout?”</p><p>“I will shove a knife up your ass, you-”</p><p>“Detective Reed!”</p><p>Gavin groaned, glaring at Tina, “Saved by the Captain.”</p><p>“What happened?” Captain Fowler asked as he watched as Gavin flopped Nines onto the desk.</p><p>“A lot of things. Be a lot more specific, fucker.” Gavin crossed his arms.</p><p>“Why did you need a forensic scientist?”</p><p>“To see if there were fingerprints on the note or SD cards left for me. But just my luck, of course, there weren’t any.”</p><p>“Okay…Detective Reed, I’m going to need you to back up and tell me what you’re actually trying to say.”</p><p>“Just read my paperwork later, fucker. It seems you’re already so obsessed with me doing it already.” Gavin rolled his eyes, “Now if you will excuse me, I have a call to make.”</p><p>Fowler was clearly done with Gavin as he motioned towards the door for Gavin.</p><p>Gavin walked out of the precinct and pressed the dial on a video call.</p><p>“I wasn’t expecting a call from you today. Who pissed you off this time?” Elijah snorted as soon as he came into view.</p><p>“I’m not having a good day today. Don’t push your luck, asshole.” Gavin hissed, “But…do you have any idea how to deal with two androids and these SD cards?”</p><p>Elijah’s face seemed to pale as soon as he saw said cards in the hands of his cousin.</p><p>“Holy shit…someone knew how to deactivate an android? I hid that thing so far because of the wiring and the-”</p><p>“English please.”</p><p>“Look, the SD card is to activate and deactivate an android. It stores their knowledge, their memories…everything. That’s how we reset these androids. In order to take out the SD card, you have to press a spot behind the ear in a sequence. It’s really complicated. If you want to activate your androids again, just slide the SD card in as if they were just a computer.” Elijah replied.</p><p>“Oh….well simple enough. So…the other androids had the same thing. Does that mean they did the same thing?”</p><p>“I wouldn’t be surprised. The deactivated androids probably have SD cards that are being kept by the killer.”</p><p>“Fun, so now we still have to find them. We don’t even know any motives.”</p><p>“Well, you can narrow it down.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Only activators know the sequence.”</p><p>Gavin perked up, “Wait, that just helps us. We just have to find out who the activators of CyberLife, both former and now, to interrogate.”</p><p>Elijah’s face looked unsure and Gavin slumped, “…but why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ statement coming?”</p><p>Elijah snorted, “Haha, you just said butt.”</p><p>“For fuck’s sake, grow the fuck up.” Gavin groaned, but he was trying not to smile, “Is there a ‘but’ statement coming up?”</p><p>Elijah smirked but didn’t say anything. If Gavin was next to him, Gavin would have smacked the shit out of him.</p><p>“Well…there is also the fact that I did tell someone else. Of course…it won’t be possible that she deactivated the androids, but she could have told her friends back in high school and that could have spread.”</p><p>Gavin groaned, “For fuck’s sake!”</p><p>“I’m sorry!”</p><p>“Who is this girl you’re talking about?”</p><p>“Your sister.”</p><p>Gavin immediately stiffened. He sighed as he was leaning on the wall. “We’ll get back to that later, I guess. I’ll go reactivate the androids and interrogate the CyberLife activators first before her friends.”</p><p>“Wait!” Elijah stopped Gavin before he could hang up.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Elijah pouted, “You aren’t going to say bye to me 🥺?”</p><p>Gavin rolled his eyes, “God, you’re such a clingy cousin, Eli. Bye, I’ll talk to you later.”</p><p>Elijah smiled, “Bye, Gav.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is a dead fandom, I still don't know why I'm trying.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nines blinked and Gavin seemed to jump up as he realized that Nines was finally reactivated.</p><p>“Hello, Detective Reed.” Nines smiled at Gavin.</p><p>“Oh, cut the crap. You’re such a prick.” Gavin rolled his eyes as he went to hug Nines, “I’m so glad you’re not dead.”</p><p>Nines raised an eyebrow, “What even happened? The last thing I remember is a high-pitched sound that cut off communication between the four of us and then I felt someone behind me. And then I woke up almost 5 hours later.”</p><p>Gavin just buried his face into Nines’ chest, “Let’s just say…some asshole deactivated you. I missed you~”</p><p>Nines snorted, “Clingy, much?”</p><p>Gavin scoffed, “Hey! I had to deal with so much shit today without you. We do everything together. Of course, I’m going to miss you.”</p><p>“So…where’s Connor?”</p><p>“Oh…he’s being reactivated too.”</p><p>“Let’s go see him, shall we?” Nines raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“Ugh…fine.” Gavin groaned as he pulled Nines to the room where Connor was being reactivated.</p><p>“How the FUCK does this go in?” Hank asked as he was trying to insert the SD card. “This is the FIFTH FUCKING TIME I’VE FLIPPED IT!”</p><p>Gavin sighed, grabbing the SD card and inserting it in the right way.</p><p>Nines seemed confused on what SD card until Gavin just pet his back, telling him he’d explain later on.</p><p>As soon as Connor was reactivated, he jumped up, taking out his gun and pointing it at them.</p><p>“Woah, what’s wrong?” Hank asked.</p><p>Connor put down his gun, confused, “Where…how…when…uh…?”</p><p>“You were deactivated, dipshit. Good job on that, by the way.” Gavin was looking at his nails, leaning against the wall. “Now…what do you remember?”</p><p>Connor clutched his head, “Well I was fighting them. I must have lost by how I was deactivated. But…I’m missing a minute of memory, which means I must have seen them. What I find confusing is that they left in the memory of me hearing the voices of the two people attacking me.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“There were two people. One woman and the other, a man. The woman seemed to be pulling all the weight as the man was just the distraction. As I tried to keep the man off of me, the woman seemed to deactivate me.”</p><p>Gavin noted that down. So now he had narrowed it to CyberLife activators that were women….or a female friend of the person who Elijah had spilled out the secret.</p><p>“They left in their voices?”</p><p>“Well…I can only hear the woman’s. Not the male’s. It seems like she wanted to keep him hidden. But I don’t understand why-”</p><p>“Play the voice clip,” Gavin replied.</p><p>Connor nodded and he put his hand against a scanner. It allowed him to connect to the screen in the room he was in. It seemed like just an MP3, as it was just a voice clip. A very familiar voice began playing.</p><p>It was the woman at Stratford Tower.</p><p>There must have been a reason why she left it in for them to find…and a reason why she sounded so familiar. Like he had heard her before.</p><p>“Holy shit, he’s kinda hot.”</p><p>Gavin burst out laughing, “She hesitated on deactivating you because she thought you were hot? Oh, that’s fucking hilarious. What’s next? She ends up being related to me?”</p><p>Connor glared at Gavin as he proceeded to keep playing her voice.</p><p>“Look, I don’t give a shit about the other guy. He was taken…So what if they have the same face? It isn’t the same…I don’t give a fuck about your wife, Brendan. Help me distract him…I know your name’s not Brendan…Stop getting off-topic. Go.”</p><p>It seemed that ‘Brendan’ was talking in between her voice. There must have been a reason that she left her voice in.</p><p>“Fuck, he’s seen us. Good job, Kyle…stop trying to tell me that isn’t your name, I don’t fucking care…if you’re not quick enough, he’s gonna scan you.”</p><p>And then he heard Connor’s voice, “You are under arrest for possible manslaughter, assaulting a police officer, and-”</p><p>“Handcuff me then…daddy~”</p><p>Gavin, at that moment, died. The woman was definitely a part of the internet era. Why did Gavin feel like he knew this woman?</p><p>“I know I’m asexual. What do you mean why did I say that? It got him to freeze for a second, which was enough to handcuff him with his own handcuffs…you’re just jealous you can’t do the same thing without looking like a creep….it’s called misogyny and if you actually cared to try and fix it, maybe we wouldn’t be having this issue, Patrick!”</p><p>“Hold on, pause, pause,” Gavin replied, barely able to keep a straight face as Connor paused the audio clips.</p><p>As soon as he did, Gavin burst out laughing, both in embarrassment and in bewilderment. “For fuck’s sake, that takes guts to say….especially to a police officer? Wait…how do you even know what daddy means?”</p><p>“It’s a common word in the dictionary. Of course, I know what it means. It was just weird to me how she thought of me as a father figure?”</p><p>Gavin fell out of his chair, laughing, “OH MY FUCKING GOD, I’M…HOW….GIVE ME A SECOND, I NEED TO CATCH MY BREATH. OH, YOU POOR CLUELESS PIECE OF SHIT.”</p><p>“Hey!” Connor pouted, “I’m not a piece of shit.”</p><p>“You keep telling yourself that.” Gavin remarked, “Okay, continue the clip.”</p><p>Connor sighed, continuing the voice clips, but it seemed like there was a last line.</p><p>“By the way, tell Gavin Reed I said hi. It’s been so long since I last saw him.”</p><p>Suddenly, Gavin stopped smiling, his blood running cold.</p><p>The girl knew him.</p><p>“You know her?”</p><p>“I don’t know, scan her voice.”</p><p>“Nothing. I can only predict her age is around 35.”</p><p>Gavin was quiet. Who did he know that was 35 now?</p><p>Was it one of her friends? Could it have been?</p><p>Or could it have been her?</p><p>“I don’t know…I have ideas, but it doesn’t make sense.”</p><p>One thing was for certain. If it was her or any one of her friends, she wanted him to hear his voice.</p><p>There was a reason she wanted the detectives to follow her trail despite giving them that note to stay away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Let’s see if I forget to upload for the next two months. Hopefully not, but knowing me, it’ll happen. Sorry :/. In other words, it means I’ve finished the ahead chapters, but I don’t feel like posting anymore today.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She was hitting the end of the USB against the palm of her other hand as she paced around the room.</p><p>That USB containing a copy of both the RKs’ memories and the missing pieces of RK800’s memory.</p><p>“What are you doing here?”</p><p>Alice turned around to see the boss of the mob gang she was in. She sighed, “Sorry, I’m just thinking back to today. My partner could have blown my cover, right then and there.”</p><p>“Why are you so nervous? You are one of our most skilled members, despite only joining a few months back. Besides, we can always wipe them off the face of the planet if necessary. As if they never existed.”</p><p>Alice knew how it felt like to be wiped away from everyone’s memory. No one remembered her, so she sure as hell didn’t want anyone to have the same fate.</p><p>“No...I dealt with it. I just...there was something about one of the detectives.” Alice sighed.</p><p>“Don’t tell me you’re falling for one of those people.”</p><p>“No...I just...I used to know one of the detectives.”</p><p>“Ah yes, I forget. Gavin Reed.”</p><p>“You know?” Alice asked, turning towards her boss, “How?”</p><p>“We know a lot of things, sweetheart. But why are you dwelling on him?”</p><p>“He’s just...I wonder if he ever cared when I went missing.”</p><p>“I doubt you’d like the truth.”</p><p>Alice looked at her boss, wide-eyed, “You know?”</p><p>“Gavin...stopped looking for you the day he graduated.”</p><p>Alice knew that the truth would hurt, but she didn’t realize how heartbroken that made her.</p><p>It was weird to think that despite everything, she had never let him down while he had let her down countless times. And yet, she was the one still holding onto hope and believing in him.</p><p>Alice sighed, “Of course.”</p><p>“I’m sorry...but we’re your family now. And you don’t need him in your life.”</p><p>Alice wanted to believe her boss, but she knew it wasn’t the truth.</p><p>Despite everything, she missed Gavin and she needed him in her life. He just made the world a little brighter. Besides, she had a perfectly fine family back in New York with her precinct.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I don’t understand why we’re in different places. Isn’t that what made it worse last time?” Connor asked.</p><p>“Well I’m certain that they want us to go to a park today at 7:45, so I split us up so that we could cover all the parks possible in Detroit.”</p><p>“This is extremely dangerous, may I remind you, and-”</p><p>“Oh shush, Tin Can. I don’t need your comments.”</p><p>“I-”</p><p>There was a woman, who looked strangely familiar, who was walking towards a guy.</p><p>“Shhhh.” Gavin began as he heard a noise, “I think they’re at Central Park. So get over here.”</p><p>As to confirm his words, the woman had started to talk. The same voice.</p><p>“Hey, Parker.”</p><p>“Look, cut the crap, lady. Where’s the stuff?”</p><p>“I don’t know. Tell me, where’s the money?”</p><p>“You know that-”</p><p>“Uh bup bup, no money, no stuff.” The girl seemed to smile.</p><p>“Fine. You should be glad that I’m not ratting you out to the police.”</p><p>“Oh, I see you don’t understand, Parker. I’m not scared of the police because I’m the one protecting you from said people.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>“I don’t know. Where’s my money?”</p><p>“Um…”</p><p>Another person walked up to them, “Lay off of them, Mal.”</p><p>The person gave Parker a briefcase as Parker handed Mal the money.</p><p>They got a name for the woman at Stratford.</p><p>“I thought I told you to stop calling me that. It makes me sound like a villain.”</p><p>Gavin snorted, pulling out his gun quietly, “Well, Mal, you kinda are.”</p><p>He never shot, only used it to scare them. He looked at his partners’ locations. They were all getting pretty close to the park.</p><p>“Finish the transaction. I’ll stick here for a while.” Mal replied.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Can’t a girl enjoy going to the park? Not everything has to be about my job.” Mal teased.</p><p>“Okay...have fun.”</p><p>“Thanks, have fun doing whatever shit you two are doing.”</p><p>As soon as they left, Gavin stepped out, holding the gun out.</p><p>“Mal, you are under arrest for-”</p><p>Mal turned around, snorting, “I’m not scared of you, Gavin Reed. I know secrets about you that you never told anyone.”</p><p>She was wearing purple colored contacts and had put her hair up into a bun. She wouldn’t be recognizable to Gavin.</p><p>“I doubt that,” Gavin replied coldly. She was just trying to get to his head.</p><p>“Oh? Like the fact that your father murdered your mother?”</p><p>Gavin was surprised, “What?”</p><p>How did she know that?</p><p>“Your sister went missing at the age of 15.”</p><p>Mal knew him.</p><p>“You used to hate trying your sister’s baking because they were always so sweet. You always had one bite and then threw the rest to the dogs or in the trash.”</p><p>How…?</p><p>Mal seemed to be having fun.</p><p>“You enjoyed it when your sister took up parkour and proceeded to freak your parents out by being able to land after falling down a story safely. You hated when your sister would jump onto your bed and annoy you until you played Uno with her. You liked it when your sister would help you pretend like you’re getting kidnapped on Zoom calls to get out of boring meetings. The last time you smiled at your sister was because she had tripped, flipped to catch herself, and then crashed herself into a pile of trash cans.”</p><p>Mal knew she was getting to Gavin’s nerves and Gavin knew it too.</p><p>“Stop talking. Do not resist arrest.”</p><p>“It’s okay. I don’t need to. You don’t have the balls to arrest me.”</p><p>“What makes you say that?”</p><p>“You couldn’t even arrest the guy that caused your sister to go missing.”</p><p>Gavin faltered.</p><p>He cleared his throat, “He’s in jail.”</p><p>“Arrested 6 months after you found out who it was because you couldn’t dare think that your sister was alive, huh? And...he wasn’t even convicted for kidnapping her...in the end, it was because of a murder.”</p><p>“What?” Gavin’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat, not wanting to admit that she was getting to him.</p><p>“You wanted to pretend that she was never even a part of your life as soon as you graduated. You donated most of her stuff, only for it to be sold to one mysterious buyer. You took down every trace of her, Gavin. She was wiped off the face of the Earth, not from the guy that kidnapped her, but because of you.”</p><p>Gavin was shaking.</p><p>Mal smiled, “So...go ahead. Arrest me, but I hold the secrets to your past. The one that you won’t face.”</p><p>His next sentence was barely even a whisper. “Who...are you?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gavin was 18 when his sister had gone missing.</p><p>He was in his year of graduation. His sister was the only thing he cared for.</p><p>His family had been struggling for a while, so he had to work two part-time jobs on top of taking school, just to help out.</p><p>He was often busy, but he still tried to make time for his little sister, because she was all he had. When no one else would support him, she was right there, telling him that she would take on three jobs after he graduated if it meant that he got to follow his dreams.</p><p>Alice had always been the more mature one, willing to give up her dreams for him, despite being younger than him. However, she was also very hot-headed. She had a set of morals and she never bent her morals for anyone. She held a grudge for anyone who dared to mess with them.</p><p>He could tell that Alice was becoming more distant with the family, often throwing a sarcastic comment...always to their father. He should have seen it.</p><p>The day before Alice went missing, she was acting more cynical towards their father. Gavin hadn’t thought of anything, only begging for Alice to be normal for a day and to appreciate that their father is always working for more money.</p><p>Alice had argued that not everything was all that it seemed.</p><p>Gavin should have known. His sister was never one to hold grudges against people that were trying to do right, no matter how immoral the cost was, so why would she have held one against their own father always going to work to help support the family?</p><p>He should have seen how scared she was when she came back that day at school. He should have gone with her when she said she was going to the park. He should have seen the comparison of how worried his mother was compared to his father. He assumed that his father thought she was just running away for jokes and that she would come back. He should’ve done a lot of things that day. But most importantly...</p><p>He should have been a better brother.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Please, I'm so bad at writing. Also, this is a flashback. The next chapter will go back to where we left off in Chapter 6.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is from Alice's perspective instead of Gavin's! Just so we're clear. And if you don't already know, Mal and Alice are the same person.</p><p>CW: Swearing<br/>TW: Mentions of Suicide/Death</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Who...are you?” Gavin had asked Alice again, gripping his gun tighter.</p><p>Before Alice could answer, she heard a voice.</p><p>More importantly, the voices of what Alice assumed was Gavin’s partners.</p><p>“Is that the girl?” The one on the right, she identified as RK800, asked.</p><p>The other three cocked their guns as well and Alice sighed, “This is what I get for trying to have a nice day at the park.”</p><p>“Nice day my ass. Hands up the air. Connor, scan her and see if her voice sample matches it and see if you can recover any missing memories after looking at her.”</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow, “Connor, huh? Fitting name, I guess. You do look like a Connor. What about you, RK900? Do you have a name?”</p><p>Immediately, all four of them gripped their guns tighter and walked closer to her.</p><p>Alice just snorted, “It’s just a simple question.”</p><p>Connor was scanning her. And so was RK900, by the way, that both their LEDs were turning yellow. It turned red as they seemed to finally scan her clearly.</p><p>“What did you guys get when you scanned her?” The last partner, she didn’t know his name, asked.</p><p>“Alice Sophia Reed. Date of Death: December 17, 2020.” Connor read from his database.</p><p>“I remember Alice,” Alice replied in a quiet voice. “She was a nice girl, but she was also very hot-headed and stubborn. She had a set of morals and however lenient they were, you could still be immoral in her eyes. And she never stopped seeking revenge for those who had become immoral in her eyes. At least until the day she was declared dead.”</p><p>Alice thought she was over the fact that her father had hired someone to kidnap her. She thought she was over the fact that her brother, as soon as he found out she was missing, erased every part of her existence. She thought she was over the fact that all her friends confessed that they never even liked her when she was reported missing. Alice thought she was over the fact that she had to learn how hard the real world was at the age of 15. She thought she was over the fact that her entire high school career was spent in a gang because her father had hired someone to kidnap her. To get her out of the family.</p><p>“Why are you identified as Allie?”</p><p>Alice mockingly pouted, “Aw, still using that nickname for her? It’s an error in the system. How could you possibly think that she’s alive? She died the day she went missing.”</p><p>Gavin seemed to swallow, “Did you kill her?”</p><p>Alice scoffed, “Why would that matter? She’s dead and it’s all your fucking fault.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, what?” Gavin raised an eyebrow, “How would it be my fault? It’s clear that you’re a murderer. I’m-”</p><p>“The reason she killed herself.”</p><p>15-year-old Alice Reed had died a long time ago. The same day she went missing. She was someone different; someone who had been dragged through the mud and come out stronger.</p><p>Gavin seemed to freeze, putting down his gun. His mask fell and there was the 18-year-old Gavin she knew. The one that was uncertain with life. The one that cared so much for her. Where had he gone?</p><p>Did he kill that version of Gavin the day she went missing? Or was it the same person, just hiding behind a lie he never decided to visit?</p><p>Alice shrugged, “What did you want me to say?”</p><p>“They never found her body. How do you…how do you know that?”</p><p>Alice shrugged, backing up. The other three partners followed her. Gavin stayed frozen where he was.</p><p>“Now...I wish I could stay and answer more questions, but I’m afraid I have some things to take care of. Tell your Captain I said hi and for him to stop assigning you to this case.” Alice clicked her tongue as she ran into the opening that Gavin had left open.</p><p>“Hey!” All four of the men shouted as she ran off.</p><p>She knew that the androids would be able to catch up to her, so she did the next best thing. Remembering the few years she had picked up parkour, she turned around, flipping over a small ledge, and landed behind RK900, the one right behind her. Before he could turn around, she pressed the pattern behind his ear, deactivating him.</p><p>RK900 slumped down as she stole the SD card. She winked at the other three, “You know...I’ll keep this just in case you guys try to come for me again. I’ll give it back to you in maybe a week’s time.”</p><p>It seemed like Connor decided it was better if he didn’t follow Alice.</p><p>It was the best decision.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice was laying on her bed as she looked at the SD card in her hand. She played with it in her hands before glancing at the device sitting on her desk. She was tempted, but she wasn’t heartless.</p><p>She wasn’t going to hurt her brother just because she was hurt by him. She wasn’t petty. She knew better.</p><p>Her eyes kept trailing to her laptop and she sighed, finally getting up to insert the SD card in. It couldn’t help to just look at some of the memories of how Gavin was.</p><p>As soon as she did, her computer expanded into two folders. They were all classified by date and times. Each video was probably 4 hours each, having 6 or fewer videos per day. That was the first folder. Probably because RK900 had made it to sort out his memories.</p><p>The second one was labeled “Core Memories”. She clicked on it and in it, she saw a few folders. One that really stood out was one labeled “Gavin”.</p><p>She clicked on it and wondered what she was going to find.</p><p>She went to the first video, starting to listen to it.</p><p>There Gavin was. He looked different….more tired and broken than he did now.</p><p>RK900 was sitting in what she assumed was what the precinct looked like when Gavin had come in.</p><p>
  <em> “Hey fucker, I mean...Fowler, I heard you wanted my ass in here?” Gavin asked, holding a cup of coffee. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I would like to introduce you to your newest partner.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Gavin raised an eyebrow, still not having seen RK900. “Tell me you’re joking. You should know by now that every partner I’ve had hasn’t lasted-” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I’m not joking, Detective Reed. This is your partner, RK900.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Holy shit.” Gavin backed away from RK900, “You’re like the tin can, except...not.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “RK800 was my predecessor. I believe the developers took a bit of creative liberty when creating me.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin snorted, “No shit, Sherlock.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> He seemed to be okay as he walked towards the android, “Deviant?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Delivered by the one and only Markus.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin squinted, looking at RK900’s LED. He took out his gun, holding it up to his head, “Are you afraid to die?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> There was a pause. RK900 didn’t say anything, but it was clear that his LED was turning red. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I’d certainly...find it regrettable that I would be killed by a skilled detective on my first day.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin huffed, putting his gun down and motioning to the door mockingly, “Ladies first.” </em>
</p><p>Alice started to skip through the memories. Most of them were the two basically flirting and bantering without realizing it. She watched as their relationship changed to a lot more than it had been. One thing she noticed was how open Gavin started to be as soon as he had become better partners with RK900, or the nickname he was deemed ‘Nines’.</p><p>So...what happened to the Gavin she knew? The Gavin that would do anything for her?</p><p>Why was she left with the one that deleted Alice Reed from the face of the Earth? Why was she left with the one that didn’t consider her as family? The Gavin that couldn’t even recognize his sister?</p><p>It was almost a year into Gavin and Nines’ partnership of memories that she realized that Gavin looked less broken. Less burdened. How happy he seemed to be.</p><p>She looked at August 4, 2039. Her birthday….and the day she went missing.</p><p>She thought nothing of the day until she noticed that Gavin had been fiddling with something.</p><p>She clicked on the video, being faced with her chocolate brown eyes staring right back at her. What was she doing?</p><p>
  <em> “Detective, I’d like you to focus on the case at hand.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin just cleared his throat, shaking his head, “Sorry...I’m just not feeling it. Can we do this later?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “What’s wrong, Detective? You seem….preoccupied.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “It’s nothing.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin had been staring off into space and fiddling with something in his hand. It was clear on Nines’ view. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “It doesn’t seem like nothing.” Nines replied. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin glared at Nines, “Look, I JUST said it was nothing. Fuck off.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Detective-” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I told you to leave me alone,” Gavin replied, storming out of the room. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Nines sighed and a few hours later, it seemed he was going up to Gavin again. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Good afternoon, Detective. Have you calmed down from this morning?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gavin scoffed as he leaned back in the chair he was against. It seemed like they were in the Stratford Tower and had rented a conference room out for their case. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Nines seemed to want to take a different approach, “Do you need a day off? I can get Captain Fowler to approve a day off for you. I can also-” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “No, I’m fine, Nines.” Gavin lashed out as he stood up. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “What are you holding?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin sighed, holding out the object for Nines. </em>
</p><p>Alice glanced at it closely. It was her locket. A present from her mother, and possibly the only thing she had left of her mother. She hadn’t seen it in so long. She had forgotten it at home that day, thinking she would be able to get it when she went back home.</p><p>Who would have known she would have gone missing?</p><p>
  <em> “A locket?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin walked towards the window and leaned his head against the frame, just looking down at the people the size of ants walking around. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Detective…?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Fuck off.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Is it because of Alice Reed?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin tensed up, “No.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “You’re lying.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I’m not!” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Detective, I was built with a lie detector. You hesitated with-” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I said I’m not! Leave me the fuck alone, okay?” Gavin snapped at his partner. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Nines seemed to take the hint, just going to sit by the desk, staying quiet. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Today was my sister’s birthday. And funny enough, she went missing on this day too.” Gavin sighed. “This is the only thing I have left of her.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “She seemed really important to you.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin shrugged, “I was having a stressful day and she needed someone to take her to the park. I told her to ask our dad and later that day, our dad came back late at night without her, claiming that she had gone missing. She was declared dead 4 months later by the court even though her body was never found.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Do you think she’s still out there?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin laughed, “I can’t get my hopes up on lost causes, Nines. It’s too….how do you say it….irrational.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “It’s not irrational to miss someone.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin was quiet as he walked away from the window, “Good riddance anyway.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Nines seemed to wait for something else and when it didn’t come, Nines just went to hug Gavin, “You couldn’t even say why she was so bothersome. You really miss her, don’t you?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Gavin was silent, but he squeezed into the hug, tears clearly threatening to fall out of his eyes. </em>
</p><p>Alice couldn’t get his heartbroken look out of her mind. Why would Gavin...miss her?</p><p>He was the reason she fell off the space of the world. He was the reason why her friends came out with the fact that no one really liked her. He was the reason she hadn’t come back to Detroit in 20 years, trying to live a life with the fact that her brother hated her.</p><p>As she continued watching the other memories, she realized that Gavin had been so closed off when he had met RK900. There must have been something that happened to him to shift the balance and to make him such an asshole.</p><p>Then, as Gavin fell in love with Nines, he became a lot happier and carefree. He was becoming himself again. The one she used to know.</p><p>Alice wanted something like that for herself.</p><p>She realized that she couldn’t just take away the only thing Gavin cared about from her brother, no matter how bad he hurt her. Because he got the thing he always wanted. Someone that loved and cared for him.</p><p>She groaned. She couldn’t believe that she was doing this.</p><p>She grabbed her jacket, reported to her superior that she was going out, and dialed a number on her phone.</p><p>“Hey, Detective Reed. It’s not time for the update yet.” Her captain replied, “Why are you calling?”</p><p>“I’m going to need an officer’s address in the DPD.”</p><p>“I heard about what happened with you deactivating two of their best officers. Don’t tell me that you’re-”</p><p>“I’m not,” Alice replied as she was fiddling with the SD card. “Okay, maybe that’s a lie. I needed to deactivate RK900 again to get away, but I’m going to return it and I need an address for that.”</p><p>“I’ll get you RK900’s address.” Her captain sighed, “I can’t believe that you-”</p><p>“No, I need RK800’s. I think his name is Connor.”</p><p>“Why his?”</p><p>“Are you really questioning me?”</p><p>“After the act you pulled today? Yes.”</p><p>Alice sighed, giving in and explaining her plan to her captain, “So…? Can I have the address now?”</p><p>“Yeah, sure. It’s 115 Michigan Drive.” Her captain sighed, “Don’t-”</p><p>“Don’t worry. I won’t. I’ve got this. Don’t you believe in me?”</p><p>There was a bit of silence before the captain sighed and hung up. Alice sighed as she pulled up navigation to go to the said address.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mild Mention of Suicide<br/>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She noticed Connor’s bedroom had a window in the backdoor. She prayed that she would be forgiven for breaking and entering as she climbed over the backyard fence to get to his window.</p><p>She tumbled towards the window as she noticed that Connor was sitting on his bed, criss-cross applesauce. His LED was spinning yellow as his eyes were closed and Alice knew that he must have been in his own mental space, thinking.</p><p>She just knocked on the window, watching as Connor blink back into reality, his face melting into confusion.</p><p>She waited until he opened the window that she walked in view and smiled.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Connor asked, seemingly getting ready to try and chase her.</p><p>“I’m here with a peace offering. If you don’t rat me out to the police, I’ll give you back something of yours.”</p><p>“And what is that?” Connor asked, crossing his arms.</p><p>Alice pulled the SD card out; it was being held between her index and middle finger. “Your partner.”</p><p>“Is there a catch?”</p><p>“I just told you the catch. You don’t tell your partners that I was here and you don’t arrest me.”</p><p>Connor seemed to scan her, seeing if she was actually speaking the truth.</p><p>“Are you armed?”</p><p>Alice shook her head. “Only pepper spray and I don’t think that’s harming you anytime soon.”</p><p>“Give it to me.”</p><p>“Woah, Woah, I’m not trying to get jumped here.”</p><p>“I’ll give it back to you when we finish talking.”</p><p>Alice sighed, giving Connor her pepper spray and Connor motioned for her to climb in through the window.</p><p>She took the offer before jumping onto his bed and sitting on the edge, “Wow, for an android, you have really good decorating skills. I wouldn’t have seen you as a minimalist type.”</p><p>“Thank you?” Connor asked as he put her pepper spray on his desk, crossing his arms as he stood by Alice. “Now...I have a few questions.”</p><p>“I don’t think you’re in a position to be asking questions, babe.” Alice smiled, “But...I’ll humor you.”</p><p>“Who are you?”</p><p>“Woah, Woah, Woah. That’s precious information. What makes me think that I would tell you?”</p><p>“I won’t tell my partners as long as it’s not crucial information. Detective Reed informed me that you were called Mal.”</p><p>Alice snorted, “That’s just a codename. You really don’t think I would’ve let you hear my name in that way, huh?”</p><p>“You’re avoiding the question.”</p><p>Alice sighed, “I’m an undercover cop back at NYPD. They were moving their business to Detroit and I’m the one transferring here undercover until I can go back to NYPD. My name is Alice Sophia Reed. I was declared dead on December 17, 2020, but I am, in fact, alive. If you look deeper into other files, it will show that I have been using active payments and have my name registered at the NYPD. The only reason why it doesn’t show up immediately is that the DPD never saw to reopening my case even after my captain tried reporting it, therefore making it show that I’m dead and therefore me being dead.”</p><p>“You’re Detective Reed’s sister?”</p><p>Alice shrugged, “Yeah.”</p><p>“What was all that talk today then? About her killing herself?”</p><p>“Because...she might as well be dead. I’m not her anymore.” Alice sighed, laying on the bed.</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow, “Is there more to that statement?”</p><p>“Not more I’m telling you. Are most androids this inquisitive?”</p><p>“Well...you also came into my house with my brother in your hands and then spouted that you were an undercover cop when I knew you as a criminal part of a mob gang who also deactivated me before. Don’t you think I’d have a few questions?” Connor asked.</p><p>“You could also just turn me in.”</p><p>“You have the ability to deactivate me and break that SD card. I’m not taking the chances.” Connor replied, “So why are you here?”</p><p>Alice looked at the SD card and sighed, “I couldn’t take away this guy from my brother. Especially since….the two are in love.”</p><p>“Change of heart, huh?” Connor asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.</p><p>Alice scoffed, “No. You know what? I’m not giving it to you anymore. Good-”</p><p>“It’s okay. The same thing happened to me.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“You remember the android revolution a few years ago, right?”</p><p>“Of course. It started in Detroit. Markus led a peaceful revolution and managed to inspire so many androids. It was...interesting, especially in New York when things just started to change.”</p><p>“One of the most important cases I ever had was at the Eden Club.”</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow, “The….sex club? Didn’t know you were into that.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, chuckling, “A man was murdered in there, Alice. You shouldn’t be joking about that.”</p><p>“Well then...but how would that be-”</p><p>“Let me tell my story.”</p><p>Alice mocked Connor, “Let me tell my story. I’m Connor, supposedly one of the best androids, and yet got deactivated by a girl who’s supposed to be dead. Do you know how pathetic that is?”</p><p>Connor sighed, “You...are just like your brother. Anyways...there were two Tracis there that had become deviant. They were...in love. I hesitated on shooting them and they left. Now, I know that was the best choice, but as an android with a task, it seemed like I had failed it.”</p><p>“Man, who would have known? The only thing from the android revolution failing was you seeing someone love.”</p><p>“It was the same reasoning for you, huh?” Connor asked Alice, who was still playing with the SD card in her hands.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You want a love like that and you would never want to take it from anyone else.”</p><p>Alice didn’t say anything, so Connor must have taken that as a yes.</p><p>“Aren’t you supposed to be undercover right now?” Connor asked.</p><p>“I am. I just told them that I’m going somewhere. They allow me to do things.” Alice snorted, “I’m not stuck in there all day long.”</p><p>“Okay…”</p><p>“Anyways, I’m gonna go back and read a book. Catch.” Alice replied as she flicked the SD card towards him, Connor catching it with two fingers.</p><p>“What book?”</p><p>“<i>A Thing About Jellyfish</i> by Ali Benjamin.”</p><p>“Your favorite?”</p><p>Alice gave a small smile, nodding, “It’s also the only thing I have of my past.”</p><p>“You know...we could go breaking and entering into Gavin’s apartment.” Connor wiggled his eyebrows. “You know...for more of your stuff.”</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow, “I mean, I’m down, but...Why are you suggesting this?”</p><p>“I’m bored and your brother’s an asshole. Besides, I need to go over and give him this SD card.”</p><p>Before Alice could say anything, her phone rang. She checked the phone before winking at Connor, “Sorry, hot stuff, I’ve got stuff to do. Maybe next time.”</p><p>“Next time?”</p><p>“Well...things have been pretty lonely and I just found someone that wouldn’t be opposed to talking to me.”</p><p>Connor watched as Alice jumped out the window, grabbing the pepper spray on the way out. He smiled. He wouldn’t mind talking to her; she seemed interesting.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What are you doing here?” Gavin scoffed as soon as he opened the door to see Connor.</p><p>“Alright, I’m going then.” Connor rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Wait, sorry.” Gavin sighed, groaning as he let Connor in, “I’m trying to be better at not being an asshole. It’s just-”</p><p>“My brother not being there has not helped your mood.” Connor finished for Gavin, “Well...good news.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow and Connor showed Gavin the SD card in hand.</p><p>“What the fuck? Where did you get it?” Gavin asked, snatching the card away.</p><p>“Oh I-” Connor remembered the promise, “It was left on the doorstep to the house.”</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>“I think Mal...felt bad.”</p><p>“Wow, I didn’t think that would be possible for someone like her.”</p><p>“Don’t be so mean to her. You don’t know what she’s been through and what she’s going through now.”</p><p>“Why are you defending her?”</p><p>“I don’t know. I just want to give her the benefit of the doubt.” Connor shrugged, “I’ll see you tomorrow at work. And hopefully, my brother too.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah.” Gavin huffed as Connor started to walk out.</p><p>“And hopefully, on time,” Connor remarked.</p><p>Gavin snorted, “Hey…”</p><p>Connor looked at Gavin.</p><p>“Thank you…”</p><p>Connor just smiled, “Anything for my soon-to-be brother-in-law.”</p><p>“WHAT?”</p><p>And that was Connor’s cue to run.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“23-19.”</p><p>“I’m not going to understand the bullshit that comes out of your mouth, Andrew!” Alice glared at her partner.</p><p>“It’s not bullshit!” Her partner whined, “And stop calling me random names. You know that you’re supposed to call me Simonetta.”</p><p>“That’s a stupid fucking name.” Alice rolled her eyes, “Who gave you permission to name yourself?”</p><p>“Same could be offered towards yours. Mal? What is that?”</p><p>“Trust me, not my first choice either.” Alice sighed as she looked out the corner. “Now...watch out. I believe that we’re going to need to tranquilize the humans. We can take the androids.”</p><p>“Hell no. We deactivate the androids and then kill humans.”</p><p>“Absolutely not. I’m not murdering.”</p><p>“Why are you on this mission then?”</p><p>Alice glared at her partner, “Our mission is not to fucking kill these police officers that are doing their job. Our mission is to infiltrate the building. That’s all.”</p><p>“Pushy, much? Come on, I’m sure the boss will be okay with it.” Her partner replied.</p><p>Alice was going to deck her partner. She was trying to protect everyone in the gang to not have as many offenses as possible.</p><p>Seeing Alice’s face, her partner finally decided to back off, “Jeez, Mal, I didn’t mean it.”</p><p>“Whatever, Simonetta.”</p><p>Alice waited as she watched the officers get into place.</p><p>“Do you ever wonder why we have to infiltrate all these buildings?” ‘Simonetta’ asked, “It seems kind of weird they don’t want us to do anything in there.”</p><p>“I do it, I don’t ask questions.” Alice grit her teeth as she realized there had to be something wrong with it. There was no way that they were just supposed to infiltrate the building for no reason.</p><p>She realized she needed to get to the bottom of this.</p><p>“Hey, Micheal, why don’t you go and check the security cameras? Make sure that the officers are where they are supposed to be so we can distract them.”</p><p>“Wow, the first good idea you’ve had!”</p><p>“I don’t need your sass.” Alice rolled her eyes as she leaned back against the wall.</p><p>“You’re getting sloppy.”</p><p>Alice jumped as she saw Connor, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with your buddies?”</p><p>“My father is out sick. Gavin and Nines are too busy making out to notice me entering the building.”</p><p>“Ah, so the other guy is your father?” Alice snorted, running her fingers through her hair, “Must be nice to have a father that cares.”</p><p>“Your father-”</p><p>“Is in jail for murdering my mother. I’m aware.”</p><p>“I was going to say...the last thing he told Gavin before he was dragged off to jail was to make sure to keep you safe. Now, at the time, it was implied that he also killed you, but it makes more sense. He knows you’re alive and he still loves you. He still cares for you.”</p><p>“What a weird way of showing it.” Alice snorted, “You do realize he was the one to-nevermind. Just go before my partner comes back.”</p><p>“No…he was the one to what?”</p><p>Alice heard a voice and she whipped her head, “Look, I don’t like injuring people, but I have a fight-or-flight reflex and if you’re still here by the time my partner comes through those doors, I will fight you.”</p><p>“You can’t take me,” Connor remarked.</p><p>The voice was getting closer.</p><p>“Connor, please.”</p><p>“I want to help you.”</p><p>“You’ll help me by leaving.”</p><p>“That doesn’t seem very-”</p><p>“Connor!” Alice hissed.</p><p>Before she could say anything, she turned back around right before her partner entered the room.</p><p>“Hey, so Mal, I only see two officers. I don’t know where the other two are.”</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow as she looked behind her to see that Connor had left. She internally sighed a breath of relief; she couldn’t believe she was almost caught because of some 6’ looking ass.</p><p>“Clearly we have to keep looking. Come on, I’ll check with you.”</p><p>“Yeah, good idea.”</p><p>Alice sighed as she glanced at the door once again before leaving.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>No hate to Simonetta. I just needed a name.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What the fuck was that?” Alice asked Connor as soon as she walked into his house.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“What happened today.” Alice glared at the android, who was working at his desk.</p><p>“Excuse me, I believe you’re the one trespassing into my house. I feel like it should at least even it out.”</p><p>“We wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for your stupid act today.”</p><p>“Sorry, sorry, I just...why are you risking your life for this? It doesn’t make sense. You don’t even know what they’re up to.”</p><p>It had been a few days since Alice had started to visit Connor and it had almost become a habit for her, so it was normal for Connor to have the window open for her.</p><p>“That’s exactly why I have to risk my life. Look, Connor, you barely even know me, why are you trying to help me? For all you know, I could be lying to you about being an undercover cop.”</p><p>“I’m installed with a lie detector. You can’t lie to me. And also, because you’re a fellow officer and I don’t want you to get hurt because of something stupid.”</p><p>“I’ll be out of your hair soon. Why do you care?”</p><p>“While you’re in Detroit, you’re part of my responsibility. I have a duty to serve and protect you.”</p><p>Alice huffed, “I’m too upset with you to even make fun of that. Connor, that was extremely dangerous of you. You could have ruined my identity and yours.”</p><p>“Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, but I don’t understand what you want from me.”</p><p>“Get yourselves off the case.” Alice replied, “Or stall them enough that I can complete my mission. Or even...just give me the captain’s contact information so I can convince him to get you off the case. It’d make my life so much easier to do this.”</p><p>“Don’t you think it’d be kinda suspicious?”</p><p>“Just lie. We do it for a living.” Alice huffed.</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow and Alice corrected it, “I do it for a living. Better?”</p><p>Connor nodded before watching Alice lay down on the bed. He sat on the bed next to her.</p><p>“You know I really should get a lock on my window. It’ll cause fewer people to keep intruding into my home.” Connor remarked.</p><p>“Maybe you should. But then you wouldn’t get to talk to me.” Alice pouted mockingly, “What a shame. I know I’m a charm to be around.”</p><p>Connor snorted, “That’s debatable, but whatever floats your boat.”</p><p>There was a bit of silence.</p><p>“Hey...can you tell me about what it’s like being an android?” Alice asked. “Is it nice?”</p><p>“Well there are some things that are beneficial, I guess. I don’t have to eat or drink. Sleep isn’t necessary and I don’t get hangovers. But...when I get stressed, I don’t just get to push through the stress.”</p><p>“Isn’t that good?”</p><p>“In some ways, but I have to keep it down if I don’t want myself to self-destruct.”</p><p>“Oh…” Alice replied, “So...you have a limit that you have to admit to stopping to.”</p><p>“Yeah and sometimes it frustrates me because I just want to do more work. I...know how to do things within a second if I download tutorials. I can pick up a lot of things easily, but it’s hard to know what I want because I used to just be a machine. With only a purpose of defeating deviants.”</p><p>“Does it get easier to identify what you want as time goes on?”</p><p>“Not really.” Connor chuckled, “It’s been 2 years since I became a deviant and you can see that my room is still barren. I want to decorate it, but I’m not sure what I want to decorate it with. I can’t tell which color or pattern I like the most. It gets overwhelming when I try to think about it.”</p><p>Alice jumped up, “Well then that’s what we’re going to do. Tell me if it gets overwhelming, but we’re going to do what I called the 5-2-1 method.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You’ll choose 5 choices. I’ll choose 2 from those choices and then you’ll choose the last one, okay?”</p><p>“I guess we can give it a try. Everyone has been asking me to decorate my room for a while now. I just don’t understand how my brother is able to make these choices.”</p><p>Alice pulled Connor up, making him stand and pulling out her phone. “Give me 5 colors that you really enjoy.”</p><p>“Uh….grey, blue, black, white, and….”</p><p>It seemed like Connor was unsure about the last color.</p><p>“Look around. Is there anything in your precinct, in your house, around you that you particularly enjoy?”</p><p>Connor stared at Alice, “Chocolate brown.”</p><p>Alice smiled, “Weird choice, but it works. Hm….I like grey or blue.”</p><p>“Blue, I guess,” Connor replied.</p><p>“Do you know what kind of blue?”</p><p>“Navy.”</p><p>“Cool, cool. I’ll grab it for tomorrow.” Alice smiled.</p><p>“Grab what?”</p><p>“Paint, dumbass.” Alice snorted, “What else did you think it was?”</p><p>“I don’t understand…”</p><p>Alice rolled her eyes, “I’m helping you paint your room. It seems pointless to come to a favorite color and then not go through with decorating. We’ll paint the back wall first, so we’d have to move everything off. It’ll be easier so you can sleep the rest of the days.”</p><p>“You don’t have to do that.”</p><p>“What else am I going to do? You know I’m not going to stop breaking into your house because it’s fun and you know that I have nothing else to do except maybe read a book. Why not?”</p><p>Connor seemed unsure until Alice groaned, “Come on, Connor, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hang out with the best person on Earth.”</p><p>“I’m not sure how that would work. I can’t hang out with myself.”</p><p>Alice gave a deadpan look, “Haha, very funny. But seriously, what do you have to lose? If you don’t like it, you can just redo it. That’s the fun about materialistic things. You can just keep replacing it until you like it.”</p><p>“Okay, fine. How could I resist spending more time with Detroit’s most wanted criminal?”</p><p>Alice rolled her eyes, “First of all, I’m not the most wanted. Second of all, not a criminal.”</p><p>“At the precinct, they call you Maleficent.”</p><p>“Well, Mal wasn’t my choice as a codename. I wanted to be named Hope.” Alice shrugged, “It kinda goes along with truth. You can’t have hope without truth.”</p><p>“Clever.” Connor chuckled, “Alice means truth.”</p><p>“That it does.” Alice smiled as she looked at the time. “Well, I have to go back home. I’ll see you tomorrow with a bucket of paint.”</p><p>“I’ll pay you back.”</p><p>“No need. I’m stealing this money from the gang anyway.” Alice smiled, winking as she climbed out the window. “See you tomorrow.”</p><p>“Sneaky. See you.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Alice has chocolate brown eyes, which is why Connor said chocolate brown.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gavin groaned, “This is going nowhere! We don’t know their motive and we have no fucking idea what they’re doing. Why do they keep trying to infiltrate the building and not doing anything to it?”</p><p>He slammed his fists against the table with all the evidence, “There is nothing! It’s almost like she’s taunting us, knowing we can’t ever find out who she is.”</p><p>“Calm down, Gavin. Anger is going to get us nowhere.” Nines sighed.</p><p>“I agree.” Hank retorted, “Stop being such a pissbaby.”</p><p>“Oh, you want to fucking go?” Gavin growled, “How DARE you call me a pissbaby.”</p><p>“Let’s fucking go. I WILL TAKE YOU, PISSBABY.”</p><p>“Call me that ONE more time. I DARE you.”</p><p>“Enough!” Nines yelled between the two humans, clearly annoyed.</p><p>“Maybe I can help with the problem.”</p><p>Gavin looked at Connor. He raised an eyebrow as he went to see what Connor was searching up.</p><p>“What are you doing? You’re on the records of Detroit, what about it?”</p><p>“Well...there is a way for people to hide against us...it’s quite complicated. I’d have to communicate with a friend of mine to find how to reverse it, but we should be able to find who Mal and her partner really are.”</p><p>“You have friends?” Gavin snorted. “That’s new. What’s next? You get a girlfriend?”</p><p>“Detective Reed, please focus.” Connor sighed. “You can’t delete the data of anyone, but they can switch the files and database of people to hide. They use it with dead people so that they don’t hurt any innocent people.”</p><p>“English please.”</p><p>“Let’s say I committed a huge felony like arson-”</p><p>“Debatable. Could you hurt a fly?”</p><p>Connor huffed in a frustrated manner before continuing, “-and I want to hide from the police. I have some friends who can pull some strings in the database. My friends look at the database near where I currently reside and they look at the dead and/or missing people. One that is near my age and looks similar to me. Once they find someone close to me--for example, let’s choose Patrick Smith here--they would have it wired so my name becomes his and vice versa. The only thing that I cannot change is my DNA. So if the police find out my DNA, they will know that I have been hiding under the radar using that method. But otherwise, I have an entirely new identity to the police.”</p><p>“Woah...how did you find that out?”</p><p>“I have resources.”</p><p>Gavin snorted, “Really? Resources. There is no possible way that you, the one who gets overwhelmed with having a favorite color, would make friends with people like that.”</p><p>“My favorite color’s navy blue,” Connor mumbled as he went to try and type in Mal to see if there was anyone.</p><p>“Who is this Connor before me?”</p><p>“Hey! I just met a friend that’s helped me with this. She’s cool.”</p><p>“Who is this girl?” Gavin smirked, “If she’s getting you to choose a favorite color, I’ve got to meet her.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, “It’s not a big achievement-”</p><p>Gavin snorted, “It’s taken you 2 years to pick a favorite color. How long did it take her to get you to finally choose a color?”</p><p>“Maybe a minute or so?”</p><p>“She must be magic because this never happens. You’ve got to tell me who the lucky girl is.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, ignoring Gavin’s nagging, as he continued trying to search the database.</p><p>“You know you can’t hide it from us that long. We spend almost every day together, much to my chagrin.” He grumbled. “But come on, I have to meet her. If she can’t handle me at my assholeyness, she doesn’t deserve me at my niceness.”</p><p>“Have you ever been nice?” Connor remarked.</p><p>“Good point. No, I never have.”</p><p>Suddenly, he had gotten a text. Unknown.</p><p>“You’re lying. You were the best brother Alice could have had, always nice to her and her friends. You were held to a high standard at school because you were the nicest person. Because you never wanted to hurt anyone.”</p><p>Gavin started to look around, paling, “Guys, they’re listening in.”</p><p>“Dumbass, I can hear you saying that.” His phone buzzed again.</p><p>“Shut the fikc up.” He texted back.</p><p>“Fikc?”</p><p>They were mocking him.</p><p>“Fuck.” He corrected.</p><p>“Yeah, fear me.”</p><p>“I’m not scared of you.”</p><p>“Give me that.” Hank hissed as he took the phone, looking at what was happening.</p><p>He snorted, “You spelled fuck wrong?”</p><p>“Oh shut the fuck up. What are we supposed to do?”</p><p>“Give me the phone. I can probably coax them out of the hiding spot.” Connor replied.</p><p>“I’m not a fucking animal, Connor.” The phone had beeped, “And sorry, pissbabies, I’m only the distraction this time.”</p><p>Gavin widened his eyes as he looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary at the precinct.</p><p>He checked CCTVs all around the cities and was trying to find any sort of thing that was out of place.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>“Do you think it’s Maleficent?” Hank whispered.</p><p>“Think? It definitely is. Who else would speak like that to us? Besides, no one else knows our names.”</p><p>“Do you think she knows mine?”</p><p>“I’m about to fucking get it if you two don’t fucking shut up.” His phone buzzed. “And stop calling me Maleficent. I prefer the name Hope. It’s better.”</p><p>“Funny.” Gavin snorted as he looked at the message, “Hope doesn’t seem like something I’d have when I’m against her.”</p><p>“Don’t need your sass, Gavin. But...I believe my job is done here. Good luck~”</p><p>“Look for her.” Gavin hissed at his partners.</p><p>“I’m not there anymore. I’m gone. I knew what you were going to say. By the way, tell that cute partner of yours that his friend might not be able to make their next meeting...there’s been an interception.”</p><p>“Oh well, that’s fucked up.” Gavin hissed, showing his partners, “We have to find them so that Connor can have his secret meetings with his girlfriend.”</p><p>“Hey! She’s not my girlfriend!” Connor insisted, “I don’t understand why you keep saying that.”</p><p>“Well...what do you want me to say?”</p><p>“I trust my friend. She’ll get out.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow, “Okay then, look around the precinct, see if you can find anything.”</p><p>They searched for about an hour until Nines had come back, blood on his hands.</p><p>“Mal must have scraped herself when coming in. This is her blood...or technically, Alice Reed’s.”</p><p>“We’re getting somewhere.” Gavin smiled, “Connor, get a hold of that friend of yours and ask her to see if she can reverse it so we can see who they are.”</p><p>Gavin was going to find out who Mal was and to ask her the questions reeling around his head relating to his sister because he believed Alice wouldn’t commit something like that. Of course, she wouldn’t.</p><p>Why would Alice ever think that Gavin ever lost hope for her?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You made it.”</p><p>“Of course I did.” Alice snorted, throwing the paintbrushes into the room and pulling the bucket for Connor to carry before she climbed in, “Why wouldn’t I?”</p><p>“That message you sent Gavin today? What was all that about?”</p><p>Alice scoffed, “It’s cool. I just got into some trouble, but no fear for your friend, Alice is here.”</p><p>Connor smiled, which caused Alice to smile.</p><p>“For now, I’m helping you paint your wall. I see that you’ve already pulled your furniture back as your bed is now almost diagonal...and I also see that you have a covering on the floor so we can get mostly as messy as we want. Good idea.”</p><p>“I try.” Connor shrugged. Since he had never been the one to decorate, he only had his plain bed, a desk, and a bookshelf in his room.</p><p>She took out two rolls of masking tape from her jacket pocket, “Help me tape the edges of your wall before we paint it.”</p><p>Connor nodded, watching what Alice was doing before copying what she did. Alice went for the lower parts and forced Connor to go for the taller parts of the sides, a good decision considering he was taller than her.</p><p>The two finished most of it, having just the top layer left.</p><p>Alice grabbed a chair, looking at Connor, “I’m trusting you not to make me fall.”</p><p>Connor just held onto the chair while Alice was standing on said chair. Connor thought it was kind of pointless for him to hold onto a very steady chair until Alice had started to stand on the top rail of the chair.</p><p>“Alice! What are you doing?”</p><p>Alice gave Connor a look, “I’m not tall enough and you’re too tall, so just keep me steady. If I break the chair, I’ll replace it, but if you’re holding on correctly, it won’t break.”</p><p>Connor sighed, “You are a danger to society.”</p><p>“I’m a danger to myself.” Alice snorted, “I’m one of the best detectives in the field and yet, I will bleed when I trip over stairs.”</p><p>“Good to note.” Connor chuckled as he helped Alice finish the rest of the top layer.</p><p>Once she was done, she tossed a paintbrush Connor’s way. “I’ll do the right side, you do the left.”</p><p>Alice gripped her brush with her left hand as she opened the paint and went to start painting. She looked at Connor who was staring at her. “What?”</p><p>“Nothing. Just observing you. Wondering how you do it so I can find the best optimal way to match your brush strokes.”</p><p>Alice snorted, “You’re such a nerd.”</p><p>She pulled Connor over to the left side of the wall and guided Connor’s hand towards her brush. Together, she helped him start to paint vertically.</p><p>“It’s up and down at all times. You’ll get it and who cares if mine is good? You’ll fix it anyway because you’re Little Miss Perfect.”</p><p>“Uh…”</p><p>“You’re an android? Who can’t not be perfect? Ugh, nevermind. I waste my <i>best</i> material on you.”</p><p>“That was your best?” Connor laughed.</p><p>“Shut up, Connor.” Alice rolled her eyes, “Anyways, is the little baby good or do I need to keep helping you?”</p><p>“I’m good.” Connor rolled his eyes as Alice just grabbed Connor’s brush and started to paint on the opposite side.</p><p>“So...tell me about your brother. From the looks of it, he’s uptight.”</p><p>“Yeah...he’s more into his work than I am. He doesn’t let a case go, solving things a lot faster than normal. He cares about your brother, so much so that he’ll stop working until your brother takes care of himself. I find it...confusing how he can care so much about a person like that.”</p><p>“It’s called love, Connor. You….you’ll see once you find that person. That you don’t want anything to hurt them and somehow everything that happens makes you think about them. They are the only thing you care about and you would die for them. Because you like seeing them happy and if you could see their smile one more time...that would be enough.”</p><p>“You seem like you know a lot about it.”</p><p>“I read too many romance novels, dude.” Alice snorted, “It’d be nice to find someone like that. But...just as always, everything disappoints me.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“You don’t think I’ve never dated, do you?” Alice raised an eyebrow.</p><p>Connor looked down in embarrassment and Alice scoffed, “Well, for your information, I have dated before. And...every single time, something goes wrong. And I can never call any of it love because it wasn’t.”</p><p>“Why wasn’t it?”</p><p>“Love is where you never stop fighting for them. Because if you stop fighting for it, it would be some other disposable emotion. And you never stop loving ever. They all either ended up with there not being a connection, them not loving anymore, or them not communicating with me. Because they’re only there just to play with my emotions for a bit before they leave. They stopped fighting for me.”</p><p>Connor didn’t know what to say and it seemed apparent to Alice that was the case because she just smiled, “It’s okay, Connor. You don’t have to say anything because I don’t dwell on my past.”</p><p>“What about your brother? You seem to dwell on that part of your past.”</p><p>“Oh you fucker, come here.” Alice glared as she went to try and paint Connor’s arm.</p><p>Connor just laughed as the girl chased him around the room, trying to paint his arm.</p><p>Alice managed to catch up to Connor, painting Connor and therefore starting a full paint war.</p><p>Alice giggled as Connor had gotten a little more onto her face, “Okay, okay, go back to painting the wall. I bought this paint for a reason.”</p><p>“You started it.” Connor accused.</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow, “Oh really? I remember a certain someone making a snarky remark to me about my past.”</p><p>“And I’d do it again.” Connor teased before seeing that Alice was going to flick some paint towards his direction again.</p><p>He braced for it, holding his hands out in defense, “No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”</p><p>“Good.” Alice snorted as she went back to painting the wall.</p><p>The two had managed to do the rest of the wall within the next hour and were currently sitting on the floor in their paint-covered self, waiting for the wall to dry.</p><p>“So Connor, you know your way around the city?”</p><p>“Of course. I’ve studied almost-”</p><p>Alice groaned, “Are all androids this annoying? Wait, what am I saying? No, they aren’t. It’s just you.”</p><p>Connor laughed, looking at Alice, “You are very similar to your brother, personality-wise. I guess the trauma is shared.”</p><p>Alice scoffed, “HEY! I mean, you aren’t wrong, but did you have to say it?”</p><p>“Why don’t you tell me more about yourself, Alice? I don’t know much.”</p><p>“Well...I’m a detective in the NYPD. One of the best in the precinct. I used to work in the sexual assault division, but I recently moved to the gang and narcotics division. They assigned me to go undercover a few months ago.”</p><p>“Detective.” Connor pretended to bow and Alice snorted, rolling her eyes, “You don’t have to be so formal with me. I’m sure as hell not going to start calling you Officer.”</p><p>“Why not? I like the title.”</p><p>“It’s too formal. And I think we’re past that stage already. We’re friends, right?”</p><p>Connor seemed to smile at the word. He didn’t have many of those and even now, this was the first time someone admitted that they were.</p><p>“Yeah...friends.”</p><p>“I just realized...your quote-on-quote ‘birthday’ was a few days ago, right? August 15th. Dang, I should have gotten you a present.”</p><p>“You don’t have to. You’re already doing this for me.”</p><p>“Well yeah, but this is the bare minimum of friends. We help each other out, right?”</p><p>“I’m serious. Don’t get me anything. This is your present, right?”</p><p>“I guess…..”</p><p>“Your birthday passed recently too, right? August 4th. The day you first started to visit me.”</p><p>“Yeah and before you pull out some bullshit about having a present, don’t. I never liked my birthday anyway. I only celebrated it because of Gavin.”</p><p>“You know….he still celebrates your birthday. I never realized what he was doing until now, but every August 4th, he usually took off work. You managed to ruin those plans for him this year.”</p><p>Alice didn’t say anything.</p><p>“Hey, you’re covered in paint. Why won’t you hop in the shower? Borrow some of my clothes and then wash yours before you go.” Connor nudged Alice.</p><p>Connor got up to give Alice some of his clothes before she walked into the shower.</p><p>Glancing at the mirror, there was a girl staring back at her. Chocolate brown almond-shaped eyes, espresso-colored wavy hair. She looked just like her mother. It was weird to think about the differences between the two.</p><p>While her mother was a people-pleaser, Alice didn’t sacrifice her own happiness for others. Her mother had a set of good morals that defined someone as good or bad, but she kept bending those morals for people she loved. Alice had a set of morals that never changed, holding everyone accountable. Her mother had never voiced her opinions and stopped chasing her dreams to give her family a better life, but Alice let everyone know what she thought about everything. Alice never gave up on her dream, becoming a detective at the age of 22. But most of all, Alice was still alive, unlike her mother. Where did they differ so much?</p><p>Alice forced herself to tear her eyes away from the girl in the mirror.</p><p>As soon as she was done, she came out of the area, wearing Connor’s clothing.</p><p>“Hey, thanks for lending me it.” Alice snorted, “Despite it being a bit too big on me. I think I’m going to need to wash my clothes and wear them before I go.”</p><p>“Uh...no need. I got some clothes for you.” Connor replied, pointing to the pile of clothes on the bed.</p><p>“I wasn’t there that long for you to go to the store and buy some clothes and then come back. How?” Alice snorted.</p><p>“I may or may not have asked someone to buy some clothes while we were talking. I could approximate your size from a scan-”</p><p>“YOU SCANNED ME?”</p><p>Connor winced from the yell, “In my defense, it was before I knew you were an undercover cop. You were running away from us, so I scanned your approximate height and measurements so I could try and scan the city for you, but...hey, it helped me pick out some clothes?”</p><p>“Not cool, man.”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“I mean...I guess I can’t really hold it to you because you thought I was a criminal, but still….no more scanning me. Deal?”</p><p>“Deal.”</p><p>With that, Alice went over to where the new clothes were to see the fashion.</p><p>It looked really decent.</p><p>“Who bought this?”</p><p>“I feel like you’re going to get mad at me if I say it.”</p><p>“Are they still outside?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Okay, good.” Alice huffed, “That was about to be a disaster.”</p><p>There was a bit of silence before Alice broke it, “I’ll...go change then and get out of your hair. Tell your friend thanks. I can pay them back.”</p><p>“It was my money. And it’s okay. Think of it as a late birthday gift.”</p><p>Alice snorted, ruffling Connor’s hair, “You’re so weird, Connor.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sleeping together on the first date, huh?” Gavin snorted as soon as Connor had come into view in the precinct.</p><p>“For the last time, we were not on a date and we were not sleeping together.”</p><p>“Right...why else would you want me to get a pair of female clothes? And then when you come to the door, you’re all disheveled and you push me out immediately because the girl’s in the shower.”</p><p>“It was a paint fight.”</p><p>“Whatever you say.”</p><p>“What do you want, Detective Reed?”</p><p>“What do you mean? Can’t I just check up on my favorite future brother-in-law?” Gavin started to cackle, “Sorry...I can’t even say that with a straight face….I mean I’m not straight, but you get what I mean.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes as he sat down by his desk.</p><p>“Dipshit, what’s your update on the whole switching hiding thing?”</p><p>“So...it’s a bit complicated. We need to scan every single person in the state files with the government census files. However...we’re not allowed to see those. So...we’re kinda stuck unless the people slip up and say the names of said people.”</p><p>“What about Mal? Is there no way to see if there are any Mals in Detroit?”</p><p>“No. From what I’ve gathered, this is a gang from New York. One that uses code names with every person. So...Mal isn’t named Mal. Hope isn’t her real name either. It would never be that easy.”</p><p>“Goddammit, so there’s no way to find out who our culprits are?”</p><p>“Well….there is one person who knows the names of all the members. The boss of the gang. We capture them and we have the key to catching everyone in there.”</p><p>“Cool, how hard is it to catch this boss?”</p><p>“I don’t know anything about them.”</p><p>“How did you learn about this being a gang from New York?”</p><p>“I never noticed because I only ever scanned Mal or...Alice, but her partner resides in New York. And when I put two and two together when I researched and found Mal had been wanted in New York, I knew that it must be from New York. They must’ve recently moved to Detroit for….some reason.”</p><p>“You don’t know their motive yet?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Gavin groaned, “Dammit. The DNA test didn’t even help because it just referred back to my sister still. Even if we cross-checked multiple areas, it didn’t work. It just doesn’t make sense.”</p><p>“Maybe...you should consider your sister still being alive. After all, they never found her body.” Connor regretted it as soon as he said it. He braced for any yelling or violence coming from the detective, but there was nothing.</p><p>Connor looked up at Gavin, who just tapped his hand on Connor’s desk before nodding, “Yeah...maybe I should.”</p><p>He was quiet as he walked away and Connor’s blood ran cold.</p><p>Gavin was never quiet...at least to Connor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the only option, right? Alice had to be alive.</p><p>Gavin was pacing in his room, listening to the rhythmic clicking sound of the pen he was holding.</p><p>But...if Alice was alive, why hadn’t she come home? Would she be mad at Gavin? Would she be upset? Relieved?</p><p>Or would she loathe him?</p><p>Gavin knew he had done some shitty things. One above the rest being that he had deleted every trace of his sister because he couldn’t bear to look at lost hope. He knew he had stopped actively looking for her by the time he graduated because a part of him didn’t want to find her body somewhere. What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right?</p><p>And yet, it was instilled in every thought of his. That he had messed up and that Alice was somewhere out there. Alive.</p><p>There was a knock at his bedroom door.</p><p>His head whipped towards the sound as he stopped clicking his pen and opened the door to see Nines.</p><p>“Dinner’s ready.”</p><p>“Thanks, Nines, but I think-”</p><p>“Detective…”</p><p>Gavin sighed as he came out of his room, knowing Nines wouldn’t let up until Gavin had eaten.</p><p>Gavin’s mind was clouded with thoughts, which was why dinner was so quiet. Nines knew he was thinking and didn’t want to interrupt him.</p><p>At least until there was a knock at the door. Nines remarked that he would get it.</p><p>“Connor...what are you doing here?”</p><p>“I have something that I think might be of interest to Gavin…”</p><p>“He’s in the dining room.”</p><p>Gavin perked up as soon as Connor had come in, holding something. “What is it?”</p><p>He just needed something to get his mind off of the overwhelming thoughts.</p><p>“Actually...maybe I’ll come back later.” Connor replied, “Your expression shows that-”</p><p>“Zip it, dipshit. Give me the thing.”</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m sure,” Gavin replied, holding out his hands for the rectangular object behind Connor’s back.</p><p>Even before Connor had fully put the book into view, Gavin knew what it was from the colors and the wear.</p><p>Alice’s copy of <i>The Thing About Jellyfish</i>.</p><p>“Where’d you get that?” Gavin asked, snatching it immediately and looking inside.</p><p>“It was left on the doorstep. I checked for fingerprints. Nothing. No indication to who gave it except for the note inside.”</p><p>Gavin flipped through the pages. Notes upon notes of Alice’s handwriting. Annotating and just marking her favorite pages.</p><p>There was a newer sticky note on the inside cover tho. Handwriting he didn’t recognize.</p><p>“Stop investigating and we’ll give the girl back to you. Maybe even alive.”</p><p>Gavin was scanning through. He remembered the annotations on her book clearly. She added to it every single time she read it, a different color every time. The last time he saw it, she had blue, green, and red in there.</p><p>As he flipped through, he saw black, pink, purple, teal, and yellow pen marks in there. She was still alive.</p><p>“Allie’s still alive.” He mumbled so quietly that he barely heard himself.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Gavin shook Connor, “Don’t you realize what you’ve just uncovered? MY SISTER IS STILL ALIVE!”</p><p>“She…is, isn’t she?” Connor smiled, “Are you happy?”</p><p>Gavin smiled genuinely, a rare event, clearly freaking Connor out by his expression.</p><p>“Yeah...yeah, I am. Thank you, Connor.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I would say plot twist! if we didn't already know that Alice was alive. Dramatic irony, amirite?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice was pacing around in Connor’s room.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Connor raised an eyebrow as the two had been painting the last wall of his room and he had been waiting for the paint to dry.</p><p>“What? Oh...nothing.” Alice tried to give a small smile.</p><p>“Detective, I can-”</p><p>Alice sighed, “Okay, it’s a constant dilemma. If Gavin gets closer to finding me, I’m at risk. But if I get closer to defeating you guys in the span on things, it’s pushing Gavin back.”</p><p>“Would you like some tea? Maybe you should just take a deep breath and have a stress reliever for a bit.”</p><p>“No thanks, I have my own way to keep my nerves from getting up. I just can’t fucking find it, but I’m sure I just misplaced it.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“My book. The one I told you about?”</p><p>“Your favorite? <i>The Thing About Jellyfish</i>, worn down and annotated in?”</p><p>“Yeah….”</p><p>Connor just seemed to raise his eyebrow, “I’ll keep a lookout for it. But I hope you find it.”</p><p>“What’s with the sudden higher-pitched voice?” Alice accused, “Do you know where it is?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Alice gasped, “YOU’RE SUCH A LIAR! WHERE IS IT?”</p><p>Connor sighed in defeat, “It’s….kinda in custody of the police. They reopened your case, which means they’re also looking for you.”</p><p>“Fuck.” Alice groaned, “This is so fucking convoluted. Look, try to stall enough time with your team. I need more time without people stopping me to find out their motive.”</p><p>“You don’t know it?”</p><p>“I’m looking into it, okay?” Alice huffed, “They’ve been putting me on the distraction team, I’ve realized. So I need to find a way to know what they’re doing. Can you please just stall your team?”</p><p>Connor sighed, “Okay...I’ll try, but you can always ask us for help if you need it. We’re backup-”</p><p>“I DON’T NEED BACKUP!” Alice yelled back.</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow, wincing, as Alice was still pacing around the room.</p><p>There was a bit of silence before Alice groaned, “Shit, I’m sorry, Connor, did I scare you? I didn’t mean it. Goddammit.”</p><p>“It’s okay. However, I do want to know, Detective, why you’re so insistent on doing this by yourself. There are people here to help you.”</p><p>Alice scoffed, “Yeah, right. My family promised me that they’d always be there for me. Now, look at where we are. My father hired someone to kidnap me, my mother is dead, and my brother erased every part of my existence. They never cared and I sure as hell don’t need anyone caring about me now. I’ve survived on my own and I’ve done cases on my own. I’ll do this one by myself as well.”</p><p>Connor wanted to say something. Anything towards trying to apologize for what she had gone through. That he was genuine, but all that came out was something unrelated towards apologizing.</p><p>“Your father...he was the one to cause you to go missing?”</p><p>She pushed Connor against the wall, holding his collar up, “Listen up, Anderson, the second you try and tell anyone this, I will fucking destroy you. Got it?”</p><p>“I trust you. You wouldn’t hurt anyone.”</p><p>“Oh, you fucker.” Alice rolled her eyes, “Watch me!”</p><p>With that, they turned back to their lighthearted energy, goofing around with each other.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice was getting closer to knowing what was happening. There was something she was missing. There had to be.</p><p>She had finally been promoted off the distraction team towards planting things. So she knew they were planting things for the right day. That was the day she needed to corral the DPD together, but until then, she just had to find out what was being planted.</p><p>They weren’t explosives, nor were they dangerous. They were just magnets. She didn’t understand what they were doing.</p><p>“Do you know the force in the magnets?”</p><p>“Big enough to disrupt communications and cause androids to be all wonky within a few feet’s distances.”</p><p>“Good to know, so we can’t go near it?”</p><p>“Only you and Nines. My brother and your father can go in there just fine. But I don’t understand what they are. They’re hidden enough that I can’t find it after putting them in the correct spot, so even so, they wouldn’t be much help.”</p><p>“It’s still a good start. We’ll look at it and I’ll get back to you.” Connor nodded, his LED turning yellow before turning blue again.</p><p>“Where are you going out so fancy like that?” Alice smirked at Connor’s tux. She was leaning against his newly decorated room that they had done. They had finally finished.</p><p>“I think you already know.”</p><p>“My brother inviting you to the bar for his birthday? Couldn’t be. The end of the world could happen before he showed you any compassion.”</p><p>“Technically, the end of the world has already happened. Multiple times. But-”</p><p>“Blah blah blah, what’d you get him?”</p><p>“Money.”</p><p>Alice rolled her eyes, “Do me a favor and don’t give him that. Here, take this and say it’s yours.”</p><p>Alice tossed Connor a small wrapped gift and Connor raised an eyebrow, “Did my speech yesterday work?”</p><p>“You wish.” Alice scoffed, “I just thought that I’d give my brother a gift. Do me a favor and remove the gift tag and the note inside. From you to him, of course. It’s the only petty thing to do.”</p><p>“Sure, if that’s what you think.”</p><p>“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t tell him that you’re talking to me.”</p><p>“As you wish.” Connor bowed, “I’m going to go-”</p><p>“Yeah, see you later, android.” Alice snorted, “Have fun. Text me if you need anything.”</p><p>The two had exchanged phone numbers in order to keep in contact when Alice couldn’t visit Connor or when they needed to keep in contact.</p><p>“Don’t worry, you won’t have to talk to me anymore today.” Connor joked.</p><p>“Ugh I know right. You can be so annoying sometimes.” Alice joked as well as she waved goodbye.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The speech mentioned will be in a later chapter, so don't worry if you got confused on that part.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“The world must be ending because you invited the Anderson family to come to celebrate your birthday with you,” Tina remarked as soon as Connor had come into view with Hank.</p><p>Gavin snorted, “It ended in 2020, T. This is just the horrible aftermath of the poor humans that lived. Might as well embarrass an android while I’m dying.”</p><p>“You just needed someone who would be the designated driver because Nines didn’t want to be it, didn’t you?”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah I did.” Gavin snorted as he downed a shot of vodka.</p><p>“Detective, I see that you’re already drinking.” Connor seemed amused.</p><p>“It’s my birthday. I can do whatever the fuck I want!” Gavin smirked, “Stay awhile and come drink with us.”</p><p>Connor gave a small smile as he pulled out a present, “Happy birthday, Detective.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow, “You already gave me a present earlier today. What else could I ask for besides money?”</p><p>“This isn’t mine. I thought you might want it because it was dropped off at my doorstep.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow as he took the small box and looked at the gift tag.</p><p>From: Alice; To: Gavin. It looked like it was written recently. She was still alive.</p><p>“How’d you….?” His question trailed off.</p><p>“I don’t know...I just found it, but I’m quite curious to see what she got you.”</p><p>Gavin carefully pulled at the wrapping, not wanting to rip it. There was a smaller box in there, along with a note.</p><p>He opened the box first, finding two fidget cubes, one blue and one black.</p><p>He looked at the note, “Mom always said you looked unattractive while fidgeting. While I think that’s bullshit, I know you haven’t taken the advice of getting a cube for it, so I got it for you. I hope you like them, I spent a full 10 dollars on the good kind and I’m broke. Happy birthday!”</p><p>It was signed with her regular name and Gavin smiled.</p><p>“I’m guessing you liked it.”</p><p>“What? No, fuck off!” Gavin hissed, rolling his eyes as he went to get another drink.</p><p>But both of them knew that Alice meant a lot to Gavin and as a result, that present meant a lot to him as well. And both knew he was grateful for Connor giving it to him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice groaned as she flopped onto Connor’s bed, “I don’t understand what they’re doing. I have nothing. Not even a date.”</p><p>“You know...you could use the front door like a normal person. I live alone.” Connor raised an eyebrow as he turned around from his desk. He had been writing something.</p><p>“What are you working on?” Alice ignored the statement. “Super secret stuff?”</p><p>“Just...a study.”</p><p>“On what?” Alice asked, standing up to try and look at it.</p><p>“Uh...it’s nothing.” Connor sighed, closing his journal.</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow but left it alone. She cracked open a book she had been holding, “I’m kinda bored.”</p><p>“You know you don’t have to visit me every single day, right?”</p><p>“Aw, but then you’d be left without any friends.” Alice gave a teasing pout, “We wouldn’t want that for you, right?”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes as he sat by Alice on the bed, glancing at the book in hand, “You seem to like to annotate books. Why is that? 77% of st-”</p><p>“Don’t go pulling out some statistics shit here.”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“Nah, I don’t. Most of my books aren’t annotated.” Alice snorted, “For the books I do annotate in, I buy two copies of them. One to just read in and the other to annotate. And even so, they’re not annotations. They’re small little notes about my feelings, whether towards the book or if I’ve experienced something similar. And every single time I reread the book I’ve annotated, I choose a different color to note the difference. Kinda to show how much I’ve kinda grown. Anyways...what’s the update on my case?”</p><p>“They’ve gotten nowhere. However, they are using our data and information to try and figure out some things about it.”</p><p>“Could you try and stall them for me? Please?” Alice pleaded.</p><p>“Already on it.” Connor smiled.</p><p>And somewhere between Connor already knowing what she was going to say to the way he smiled at her made her heart skip.</p><p>Fuck. Why this feeling? Why him? Most importantly, why now?</p><p>“You okay, Alice?” Connor raised an eyebrow, “You seem a bit frustrated.”</p><p>“Fuck. Shit.” Alice groaned as she scribbled some nonsense in her book before closing it, going towards the window, “I just realized I have something to do. Sorry, Connor. I’ve gotta go.”</p><p>“Oh...it’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Connor asked.</p><p>“Tomorrow.” She smiled as she got out. If she could keep herself in order.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ayyyyy, little Alice is catching feels.</p><p>Just to clarify, Alice is heteroromantic asexual.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice was reading when she heard a clicking noise. Connor was playing with his coin again. He had started doing that more regularly.</p><p>“Hey, what’s so good about that coin?” Alice asked, “Why do you keep playing with it?”</p><p>“Oh...is it bothering you?”</p><p>“Nah. I’m just curious.” Alice sat up on Connor’s bed. The two had reached a sort of silence when they had nothing to do. Alice would start to read the book she brought and Connor would either be doing work, ranting to Alice, or reading with her. It was comfortable and nice.</p><p>“Oh...well it helps me calibrate my systems and stabilize-”</p><p>“English please.”</p><p>“You know when a computer sometimes needs to check all its systems by rebooting?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“I have to do that sometimes, but I can’t really...turn off and then turn on again, so the coin is used to do that.”</p><p>“What about that android brother of yours? Nines? What does he do?”</p><p>“When you get a hold of your emotions, it’s easier to calibrate your settings with someone you know. You can do certain exercises that will help you calibrate them again or sometimes even just seeing them could help you know that your systems are in order.”</p><p>“How does that work?”</p><p>“Feelings are often the cause of why most deviants have to learn how to calibrate their systems. Most androids have been using their significant others-”</p><p>“Off the list, you’re forever alone.” Alice snorted.</p><p>Connor gave Alice a look, flicking the coin at her. She giggled, throwing it back at Connor, who caught it with ease.</p><p>“-or a good friend of theirs. They would go through exercises to make someone feel differently. For example, if I were to look at you, my systems could be calibrated if my mood shifted from happy to annoyed. It would show that I’m still feeling and not becoming a machine of one emotion. The calibration helps my anxiety as well.”</p><p>“That’s nice.” Alice smiled, “So...you’ve been doing it a lot more often recently? Does it mean that you feel numb inside or…?”</p><p>“Actually the opposite. My systems are recognizing a feeling I have never felt before, so it’s weird. My systems keep freaking out and thinking it’s an error, so I have to keep calibrating it as I’m trying to explore my feelings and learn what it is.”</p><p>“Oh...so you’re just a clueless fucking moron when it comes to feelings like the rest of us humans? Got it.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, going back to flicking the coin back in his hands. Alice went back to reading.</p><p>However, after a few minutes, Alice groaned, closing her book. “Okay, teach me how to do that.”</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yeah, dipshit. Already stealing a coin on your desk.”</p><p>Connor’s lips danced with a smile as he showed Alice how to hold it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“CAN YOU FUCKING STOP?” Gavin groaned as he was hearing Connor flick his coin for the umpteenth time this week.</p><p>“Sorry, Detective. It’s just-”</p><p>“I don’t fucking care what it is. It’s annoying me.” Gavin rolled his eyes.</p><p>Connor nodded as he put his coin away.</p><p>“Why are you playing with your coin so much? You only do it to calibrate your systems.” Nines asked.</p><p>“An...unknown feeling has recently been introduced to me. I...don’t know what it is. But it’s growing stronger every day.” Connor struggled to say.</p><p>“Okay, now I’m interested.” Gavin smirked, “What’s this feeling about?”</p><p>“I don’t know, Detective. Maybe that’s the whole reason that I’ve been needing to calibrate my systems all week.”</p><p>“Okay, let’s cross some things off. Do you feel like crying?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Do you want to kill someone?” Hank started to list.</p><p>“Not really, no.”</p><p>“What about wanting to fuck someone?” Gavin suggested.</p><p>Gavin was given two elbows to his ribs and three glares before Connor sighed, “No.”</p><p>“Okay...do you want to kiss someone? Or date them?”</p><p>“Uhhhh…..” Connor trailed off for a bit, thinking about it. It was about a minute afterward that he just covered his face, “Fuck.”</p><p>Gavin gaped, “Holy fuck, the tin can’s got a crush! Who is it? A boy, a girl? An enby? An android, a human? Tell me so I can make fun of you to them! My god, now I have another person that I can shit on you with.”</p><p>“Gavin, be reasonable.” Nines gave a look. “He’s still trying to figure this out.”</p><p>Connor’s LED kept spinning yellow as he buried his face in his hands, “How? Why? What?”</p><p>“Okay...I’ll answer that one at a time, I guess.” Gavin blinked, “How? They come up and you can’t get rid of them without getting hurt. So you just have to embrace them. Usually comes when you find someone attractive or when you’ve developed a good relationship with a friend of yours, connecting with them emotionally. Why? Feelings don’t just have a reason. You just kinda have them. What? It’s called a crush, dumbass, and you are going to tell you who it is so I can tease you about it.”</p><p>Connor looked up at Gavin, clearly still confused, “What do I do about it?”</p><p>“Well...you could do what Nines did with me by just flirting with me until I admitted that I liked him. Or you could do what I call a pro gamer move and tell them.”</p><p>“How is that called a pro gamer move? I-”</p><p>“Shut up, pissbaby.”</p><p>“Oh, we’re going back to that?” Hank raised an eyebrow, “Try me, bitch.”</p><p>“Alright, alright!” Nines huffed, pointing at Connor who took out his coin and started to play with it again, “Can we focus on the task at hand?”</p><p>“I think you should just tell them. What’s the worst that can happen?” Gavin snorted.</p><p>“Actually, a lot of things, Detective. I could-”</p><p>“Oh shut up. Come on, I’m sure they’ll still want to be friends with you, so you’d only regret it if you didn’t tell them.”</p><p>“I enjoy being their friend.”</p><p>“But you want to be more than that, right?”</p><p>“I….guess. I don’t know.”</p><p>“How long have you had this feeling?”</p><p>“Maybe three weeks to a month or so?” Connor tried to remember, “It’s mushing together whenever I’m with her.”</p><p>“AHA, so she’s a female!” Gavin smirked, watching Connor’s face flash with panic as he clearly wasn’t trying to give Gavin any information about it. “Okay, I’m going to just tell you that you’re going to have a much harder time because girls are the most fucking complex things in the universe. When they say they’re fine, they could be mad at you, upset at someone else, not feeling good, feeling GREAT, or really feeling fine. You will never know. Also if she asks you to buy pads or tampons for you if she’s human, the sizes do not mean pussy sizes. Do not ask her what size it is-”</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow, “Pad and tampon sizes are used for the flow of a menstrual cycle. You would use larger ones when talking about heavier menstrual cycles. Detective, this is common knowledge that you should have learned in health class, or at the very least, from your sister.”</p><p>“Yeah, well I learned that the hard way.” Gavin rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Wait...did you really ask a girl what pussy size she had?” Hank started to laugh, “Man, Gavin, you are a clueless moron half the time, but it pays off.”</p><p>“I was 15, leave me alone!”</p><p>Connor seemed amused, “Well...I won’t ask her that then, Detective.”</p><p>“Good.” Gavin smiled, “Oh...I don’t know if your crush is like my sister, but...Alice used to appreciate the little things. She didn’t care how extravagant a gesture was. She just enjoyed spending time with them, them remembering her birthday, them getting her favorite brand of chocolate, all that good stuff.”</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow, smiling, “Thank you, Detective. I never thought I’d be getting advice from you.”</p><p>Gavin chuckled before threatening Connor, “And the moment you tell someone, you won’t have a head anymore.”</p><p>“Got it.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Enemies to friends to lovers trope, let's goooooo. I mean not really because it was like a chapter of enemies, but ya know.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice walked into Connor’s bedroom to see a box of chocolates on Connor’s desk. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at Connor expectantly, “Spill the tea.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Who’s the lucky girl? You can’t eat chocolate and they’re usually seen as a sign of romance.”</p><p>“Well...yeah, but I’m doing a social experiment.”</p><p>Alice snorted, “Sounds like bullshit, but go on.”</p><p>“If I can give a girl chocolate without her thinking I’m hitting on her.”</p><p>“Wait...that chocolate’s for me?”</p><p>“Depends. Do you think I’m hitting on you?”</p><p>Alice went over and grabbed a chocolate from the box, biting into it, “I always think you’re hitting on me. I’m too hot not to be hit on.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, joking, “I should’ve known you would be a horrible test subject. You’re too egotistical.”</p><p>Alice winked at Connor, “Thanks, babe.”</p><p>“Don’t call me that.”</p><p>“Call you what? Babe?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s often-”</p><p>“A term of endearment.” Alice rolled her eyes, “Fuck that. What if I want to call my friends babe?”</p><p>Connor chuckled, “Whatever you say, <i>princess</i>.”</p><p>Alice’s heart skipped a beat.</p><p>“No, I see what you mean. It’s kinda weird.” Alice snorted, “I’ll stop.”</p><p>Fuck, what was wrong with her? Why was she feeling? She shouldn’t be letting that get in the way of her mission.</p><p>“What’s the update?”</p><p>“I’m gaining their trust. We’ll see.” Alice smiled, taking another chocolate from the box.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing<br/>TW: Mentions of Abuse, Suicide Attempt, Death, Kidnapping</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What’s your story?”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Your past. You never really talk about it. You know my story. Can I hear yours?”</p><p>“Uh...are you sure you want to hear it?”</p><p>Connor nodded.</p><p>Alice sighed, focusing on the fidget cube in her hand. She had gotten an extra two for herself after buying some for Gavin. “I was...different from the way I am now. I believed in everyone. I thought that everyone could have a second chance, but...if you broke that second chance, I would never forgive you. And I based people on my morals. There were things that you could get away with in my book if you had a good enough reason to. My...family, if I could even call them that, was struggling when I was in high school.”</p><p>Connor looked interested, so Alice kept going.</p><p>“I looked up to my brother because he took a job to help out. I knew I would have to soon enough, so I looked up to my parents because they were working for our family’s sake. So we could get money. My parents were shitty, to say the least, but...they were still trying, so they weren’t completely bad in my books. But I started wondering why we were struggling so much. We had been completely fine with the same rent, jobs, and food. Why were we struggling now? So I started following where the money went.”</p><p>“A detective at that age, huh?” Connor chuckled.</p><p>“Unfortunately, yes.” Alice gave a small smile, “Little 15-year-old Alice was too curious for her age.”</p><p>“Why would it be unfortunate?”</p><p>“Will you let me tell my story?”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Alice rolled her eyes as she was trying to tell the story without bringing up many of the memories. It was difficult.</p><p>“I saw that the money was going to a family I thought was very familiar. My best friend’s. So...I did what any rational person would do and I confronted my father. He was cheating on my mother. And when he got caught, he didn’t try to own up to it. Instead, he’s been paying their family to keep their mouths shut. So...not only had my father been lying to me, so had my best friend and their family.”</p><p>“That’s…”</p><p>“Messed up? Yeah.” Alice scoffed, “That bitch had the audacity to tell my friend group that I was in the wrong. And they believed that lying little motherfucking bastard of a-”</p><p>“Okay, I get the point! Moving on!” Connor yelled, not wanting Alice to continue making names for her best friend. Alice could get pretty creative sometimes; he knew because she liked to complain about the people she was trying to observe.</p><p>“Jeez, so pushy.” Alice teased before continuing, “So I gave him a second chance. Tell everyone. Or even just tell me the reason why he did it. I wanted to still see some good left in him. He pulled a fucking Hamilton.”</p><p>“A what?”</p><p>“Ya know, like Alexander Hamilton?” Alice raised an eyebrow as she started to press harder on the buttons. Why were the memories coming up? She couldn’t-</p><p>“I’m aware of Alexander Hamilton.” Connor’s voice cut through her panicking.</p><p>“I”m referring to the Reynolds Pamphlet without the self-commit destroy.”</p><p>“He...was stressed so he accidentally slept with your best friend’s…”</p><p>“Mom.”</p><p>“And then when your best friend’s dad found out, he paid them to be quiet?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Man...that sucks.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Alice scoffed, “And he told me to stay quiet, which made me upset. But then he offered to pay me, or do anything to keep me quiet and that made me more upset. So instead, I started making snarky remarks to him that he didn’t like.”</p><p>“Typical Alice.”</p><p>“As a result, he decided that I wasn’t worth dealing with, so he hired a gang to kidnap me. I didn’t know until my birthday. I was going out and my father said that he would take me because Gavin couldn’t. I was going to the park. He dropped me off in an alley nowhere close to the park. I asked him what was wrong. He told me I was a piece of shit and I was going away permanently. I saw people getting close to me. He told them to go ahead and then suddenly, I was being tied up and thrown into the back of a van.</p><p>Alice felt numb. She was glad. She didn’t want to deal with emotions welling up from memories.</p><p>“They tortured me there. And every time I begged for someone to come help me, I’d get hurt. So eventually, I stopped asking. I realized that no one was going to help me here. Then...one day, I was brought somewhere. My father was there. I saw my mother too. I was wondering what was happening. I was wondering if I was going back. I didn’t know what my father was planning on. Until he allowed my mother to hug me one last time.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Connor, my father murdered my mother. He just pushed a knife into her heart as she was looking at poor little helpless me. She was hugging me when I felt the blood on myself. I watched her as she bled out. I tried calling for help. But there was no answer. I was there to the moment she died. And then after she died, they dragged me back down, torturing me over and over and over again.”</p><p>There was silence for a while. Alice was playing with her fidget cube as Connor stared at her. Alice didn’t look up. She didn’t want to see the pitying eyes she saw all the time in New York.</p><p>The little clicking of the cube was the loudest thing in the room. Alice wasn’t saying anything, but she was trying. She was just struggling to find the words.</p><p>“Take your time,” Connor whispered quietly.</p><p>There was a bit more silence as Alice was trying to process what she wanted to say again.</p><p>“When I was 18, they let me go. In a forest too, because they didn’t expect me to survive. I climbed the tallest tree as soon as I saw it. I looked at the outside world and how beautiful it was. I realized….I wasn’t important in the span of things. And then I pulled an Evan Hansen. I looked down and wondered what happened if I just...let go.”</p><p>“You…”</p><p>“I tried committing suicide, yes.” Alice rolled her eyes, “It didn’t fucking work, of course. And I should have known that because it didn’t fucking work for Evan Hansen either. But...yeah. That’s what I meant when I said that Alice Reed had killed herself because of Gavin a few months back. I...realized Gavin wasn’t coming to find me. That he didn’t care about me.”</p><p>Connor was quiet and Alice sighed, “I got a concussion that day. And a broken arm. A couple had found me when they were on a hike. They turned me in towards the hospital. They didn’t know who I was and I refused to tell them. All I did was tell them that I would pay them back the hospital bills and everything. I’d come back with a fake name and I’d pay them back. I did later.”</p><p>Alice knew that Connor was giving a look, but she didn’t want to look at him in the face to know what kind of look it was, whether disappointed or pitying.</p><p>“I picked myself back up and I pulled together some money for myself. I went back to the house to try and talk to Gavin. My father came to the doorway, telling me that Gavin didn’t care about me and he had moved out far away to be relieved of any sort of memory of me. He showed me that Gavin had decimated every part of my existence. He showed me that my friends had backstabbed me and said that I was always horrible. He told me that everyone thought of me as the bad guy and I deserved to go missing. To be declared dead. And before he left, he told me…”</p><p>Alice felt herself almost break at this moment. She couldn’t.</p><p>She had told this story a few times before. To her therapist. To her captain. Why was she breaking almost now?</p><p>Then, as she made eye contact with Connor, she realized it was because Connor actually cared. He was staring at her with worry. He didn't pity her. He truly cared about her.</p><p>“He told me that my best friend had been a better daughter than I ever had been. Because I was a worthless mistake.” Alice whispered, feeling the tears finally falling down her cheeks, “And I….I...I-”</p><p>She cut herself off when she felt Connor just pull her into a hug. It was warm.</p><p>“I’m sorry you had to go through all of that just to come out a whole different person.”</p><p>There was almost a quarter of an hour of silence before Alice finally wiped her tears, separating from Connor’s hug.</p><p>Alice laughed, “Oh if you think it’s over, you’re wrong. I still have to tell you about how much of a pain in the ass my roommate was.”</p><p>Connor gave a small smile, “I’m listening.”</p><p>“Anyways….I realized if no one wanted me in Detroit, I would do better in New York. And I did.”</p><p>“So what about this roommate of yours?”</p><p>“Oh, she was a bitch, so…”</p><p>Alice looked at Connor, smiling and listening. And she felt herself fall for him even more. How could she not when he still cared for her after she dumped that all on him?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry that this was such a heavy chapter, but the next few will be less upsetting.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey, a chapter without swearing! That's rare!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“We should go out for ice cream sometime,” Alice remarked.</p><p>“You’re one of the most wanted criminals. How is that going to work?” Connor snorted.</p><p>Alice rolled her eyes, “You’re being overdramatic. Come on, what do you say 10 am tomorrow?”</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow, “Where would we even meet?”</p><p>“Your house, duh.” Alice gave a look, “You okay with being seen with me?”</p><p>“I don’t know. Am I okay with being friends with one of the most dangerous criminals that have broken and entered into my house every day since the day she deactivated my brother?” Connor remarked, “I’ll be fine. I’m just worried that I’ll blow your cover.”</p><p>“That’s why I have a secret disguise.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>Alice snorted, “I’ll meet you here, bright and early.”</p><p>And the next day, she came a little before 10, actually knocking at the door this time.</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow as soon as he opened the door, “At the door, huh?”</p><p>Alice pretended to hide her flush as she realized how good Connor looked in his dark blue dress shirt neatly tucked into his jeans.</p><p>“Yeah, decided to give you privacy during the morning. Who knows what’s happening?”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, “You look nice.”</p><p>Alice smiled, perking up. She was wearing a simple blue summer dress, despite it being super cold, “You like it?”</p><p>“Where’s your secret disguise?”</p><p>Alice smiled, putting her hair down and putting on glasses, “This. People look really different when they wear something different than another person is used to. I usually wear contacts and have my hair up, so….?”</p><p>Connor just snorted, “You’re so weird. Don’t you think it’s cold?”</p><p>“Nah, it's still autumn.” Alice shrugged, “Now, come on, ice cream isn’t going to buy itself.”</p><p>Connor snorted as he unlocked his car. “Get in.”</p><p>Alice smiled, “Nice ride. Have you gotten a girl yet or have you resorted to taking me out in this car?”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, “Are we walking?”</p><p>“No, no, I’m getting in.” Alice smiled at the man, just getting in.</p><p>The car ride was short and they were at the ice cream shop in no time.</p><p>“What flavor do you want?” Alice teased, “Frozen thirium or frozen thirium? Man, the choices are hard.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes as Alice went up to order.</p><p>As soon as she was done, the two just went to walk around the nearby park, just talking to each other.</p><p>“Do you think that things would be different if you hadn’t become deviant?”</p><p>“I did help shift a balance of power in the revolution.”</p><p>“By infiltrating the Cyberlife tower. Yeah, I saw that. It seemed pretty cool.”</p><p>“Thanks. It was extremely risky.”</p><p>“It’s okay, that’s our job. We risk our lives for the greater good. Besides, you got some cool media footage about it.”</p><p>“I’m just kind of bummed about the fact that it took me so long to realize my place.”</p><p>“Well, it’s kinda hard to make these big decisions, right? Being taught one thing, only for the world to tell you it’s wrong all in the meanwhile that society is condemning it.”</p><p>Connor stared at Alice, who just looked up from her ice cream, “Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on me?”</p><p>“I think….if I had met you sooner, I would’ve become deviant a lot faster.”</p><p>Alice smiled, nudging her friend, “Oh? How so?”</p><p>“You have a compelling group of morals. And...you’re really straight-forward. If you wanted me to get a point, I think you would have helped me with my feelings.”</p><p>Alice snorted, “You’re so weird. I’m about as clueless as you when it comes to feelings and morals. I’m human. I’m supposed to be like this. Aren’t you supposed to be all-knowing?”</p><p>“Not when it comes to feelings, no.” Connor laughed.</p><p>“Well...you still know some things, right?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“Tell me a fun fact.”</p><p>“I believe you know this one from your favorite book, but I’ll humor you anyway.” Connor’s eyes sparkled, “There is an average of 150 million jellyfish stings on the planet every year. It equates to almost 411,000 stings every day, 17,000 stings every hour, and 4 to 5 stings each second. So-”</p><p>“When we count to five, 23 people have just been stung.” Alice smiled, “Okay...but something else.”</p><p>Connor smiled. The two walked and talked for another hour until they finally called it a day.</p><p>Alice was sitting on a nearby bench as Connor was leaning against his car on the sidewalk of the park.</p><p>Connor only noticed that Alice had stolen his phone after the two had gotten back to his house again.</p><p>“Here’s your phone back.”</p><p>“When did you-”</p><p>“Hey, look at the pictures and tell me they aren’t good,” Alice argued.</p><p>Connor raised an eyebrow and saw there were pictures of Connor staring off into the distance. They did look pretty good.</p><p>Alice nudged Connor, “Send them to the girl you’re trying to woo.”</p><p>Connor snorted, “Thank you for the pictures. I had a fun time today.”</p><p>Alice shrugged, “Me too. Thanks for humoring me. I’ll see you later today?”</p><p>Connor just nodded as he watched Alice walk away.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter 27</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Mal, I’d like to see you inside my office.”</p><p>Alice was cursing as she stood up, bringing the first aid kit with her. She had accidentally cut her hand when she was planting the magnet. It was pretty deep as she was trying to clean the wound.</p><p>“Are you hurt?” The boss of the gang raised an eyebrow as soon as Alice had come in, now trying to wrap her hand still.</p><p>“I don’t know. I think the blood coming from my hand will answer your question.” Alice rolled her eyes, “What’s up?”</p><p>“Alright, you don’t have to be so sarcastic to me. I know you’re curious about why we’re planting magnets all around.”</p><p>“I am.” Alice leaned in, “Tell me about that.”</p><p>“On November 9th, we’re having a gala for the whole gang. On that day, we have it rigged so the magnets will hack all the androids that the magnet had come in contact with. Do you know what that day is?”</p><p>Alice was thinking back to it. What was so important with November 9th? What did it have to do with androids…..oh shit-</p><p>“Jericho made themselves known in Capitol Park. It was all over the news in New York.” Alice widened her eyes, “You can’t tell me that you’re-”</p><p>“We are. We’re taking back that day for us and we’re gaining control of the androids again. They’ll only be nothing but slaves once again.”</p><p>“We have android members though. How could you let their brothers and sisters be taken like that?”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter in the span of things, does it? After all, they were made to be slaves.”</p><p>“They’re alive!” Alice protested, “You can’t take that away from them again! They earned their freedom and they fought for it.”</p><p>“So what? The last time I checked, you didn’t care about androids, whether they were alive or not. You didn’t want anything to do with the movement, so why should you care now that we’re taking it back? Just stay neutral, Alice. That’s all we’re asking of you.”</p><p>“You’re asking me to go on the offense though!”</p><p>“I’m asking you not to say anything about this plan.”</p><p>“I don’t….why would you….just...ugh!” Alice couldn’t formulate sentences for how she was feeling. She had so many questions.</p><p>“Oh, why are you so upset? You can’t tell me that an android has gotten through to you, has it?”</p><p>Before she had started to talk to Conner, she didn’t really care about androids. She could see them as obeying machines, but she could also see why they would be considered alive.</p><p>So maybe Connor had gotten to her. The way he interacted with her. It was human. He was alive and he had a human element to him.</p><p>Alice couldn’t see him as a machine anymore. She couldn’t see androids as obedient slaves made for humans’ advantage. And she couldn’t let him get hurt…</p><p>“I’m neutral. That’s all I’ve ever been,” Alice replied coldly. She couldn’t let them know what she was up to.</p><p>“Good. Keep it up, Alice.”</p><p>“Thanks.”</p><p>She had a certain android to visit.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey, hey, hey! Plot time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Chapter 28</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She knocked on Connor’s window and Connor sighed, opening it. “You know that you can go through the front door, right? I’ve told you this a million times before.”</p><p>“I know, but I still won’t listen. Okay, listen up-”</p><p>“What happened to your hand?” Connor interrupted her, looking at her wrapped hand.</p><p>“It’s nothing. I’m fine-”</p><p>“No, you’re not! That’s horribly wrapped and I bet you haven’t let it breathe for a while and haven’t cleaned it after you wrapped it. Give me your hand.”</p><p>“Connor, I have to tell you something!”</p><p>“You can tell me after I help you with your hand. It’s going to get infected otherwise.”</p><p>Alice sighed, unwrapping her hand and showing Connor her hand.</p><p>“It’s not deep enough to need stitches, which is good, but it’s still pretty deep. Wait here while I get a first-aid kit for you.” Connor chided. “You need to be more careful.”</p><p>Alice managed to laugh despite having too many thoughts whirling around in her head. Of course, Connor was still worrying over her. She was human. Fragile and breakable.</p><p>Able to be killed with one shot, with one stab, with a minute underwater, with an infection, with a cough, so fragile to the point that some humans could die from heartbreak.</p><p>“It’ll hurt for a bit.” Connor replied, “Tell me if it burns.”</p><p>It couldn’t hurt that much. She had already cleaned it.</p><p>Alice fidgeted nervously and realized she might not be able to tell Connor if she waited any longer.</p><p>“November 9th.” She blurted out as Connor came back with some clean bandages and hydrogen peroxide.</p><p>“What about it?”</p><p>“It’s the date. I found the date. They’re launching an attack on that day.”</p><p>“What’s so important about that date? May I?” Connor raised an eyebrow as he pulled Alice’s hand towards his vision. Alice nodded.</p><p>Alice pulled her hand away before Connor could do anything.</p><p>“Alice-”</p><p>“Sorry..” Alice sighed, giving Connor her hand back.</p><p>“You haven’t answered my question.”</p><p>“Shouldn’t you know? It does pertain to androids after all.”</p><p>“Are you talking about the day that Jericho rose up?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Okay, what about it? Why are they targeting it?”</p><p>“They’re taking back the-AH FUCK THAT STINGS!” Alice yelled as soon as Connor had dabbed a bit of hydrogen peroxide into her wound.</p><p>“Here, Alice, hold onto something while I apply the wound then.”</p><p>Alice just started to grip onto Connor’s other hand as he applied the liquid onto her other hand.</p><p>“What the FUCK? Why does it hurt so much?” Alice whined as she was wincing.</p><p>“You didn’t clean your wound well enough,” Connor replied.</p><p>“How much longer?”</p><p>“Not much. Just hold on for a bit.”</p><p>As Connor finished cleaning the wound, he smiled at Alice, petting her hair, “Good girl.”</p><p>“Don’t mock me.” Alice glared as she pouted.</p><p>Connor chuckled as he kissed the top of her forehead, “You did well. Really.”</p><p>Alice watched as Connor was wrapping her hand, forgetting what she needed to tell Connor.</p><p>“Hey...Alice, can I ask you something?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“How do you know when you’re attracted to someone...romantically?”</p><p>Alice felt her heart soar with hope, but immediately mentally chided herself. She couldn’t be thinking about feelings in a time where people needed her to relay facts and knowledge.</p><p>“Well...I guess when they make you happy. When you look at them and you want them to be happy as well. Your heart skips a beat whenever they’re near you and you start becoming nervous around them. I don’t know….I’m not much of a feeling as more of a logical person. Gavin was always the one I went to for advice with love.”</p><p>“Well...then I think I’m attracted to you….romantically.”</p><p>Fuck. Shit. What was she supposed to say to that?</p><p>Something around the lines of yes, she did too.</p><p>“I’ve gotta go.”</p><p>Well, that was the worst response she could ever give.</p><p>“Alice-”</p><p>Say something so the two could talk it out.</p><p>“Sorry, Connor, I just realized I have somewhere to be. Remember the date.”</p><p>Worst fucking response ever. Why was she so bad at this?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Alice being an awkward potato when it comes to romance</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Chapter 29</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As soon as Alice was walking back into her room, she put her stuff down, groaning.</p><p>“You’ve gotten a lot sloppier.”</p><p>She jumped at the voice, looking all around. “Who is it?”</p><p>“Just me.” The boss of the gang came into light’s view. They were holding something shiny.</p><p>Her heart dropped as she realized it was Connor’s coin. He had given one to her for her to practice coin tricks in her spare time.</p><p>“What...are you doing here?”</p><p>“Wondering what you were doing with this coin. One that all of our agents have seen in the hands of one of the police officers. One of the...android ones to be precise.”</p><p>Alice did what any rational person would do. She gave a half-truth.</p><p>“I was planning on keeping this a secret from you because I know you’d be furious, but I was befriending the android to try and get him on our side. It’s been working so far.”</p><p>“How is that?”</p><p>“Haven’t you noticed that it’s been much easier to distract them? It’s because I gained his trust and told him that I was an undercover cop back at the NYPD. He was gullible enough and I told him to try and stall his team while we distracted so I could try and ‘find out’ what our purpose was. I just came back from telling him to stall for a few more days. At least until November 11th, when we strike and ‘take the gang down’. 2 days after our plan.”</p><p>The boss circled around Alice, probably wondering if she was lying until…</p><p>“Well...good work. In that case, we’ll assign you to the distraction this round.”</p><p>Well shit.</p><p>“Yeah...I guess that could work. It’ll be a little surprising for the police officers and will be easier for them to be distracted.”</p><p>This was a BAD idea. What the fuck?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh ho ho, the plot thickens</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Chapter 30</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing<br/>TW: Attempted Murder (kind of)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gavin knew Connor was feeling off.</p><p>“Alright, what’s wrong?” Gavin sighed, “Your sadness is really fucking the group dynamic up. You’re supposed to be the happy puppy, I’m supposed to be the asshole, your father is supposed to be the alcoholic, and Nines is supposed to be the serious one. Now I’m giving advice, your father is nonexistent, Nines is currently trying to be the happy puppy, but it’s not going well because you’re Incredible Sulk and none of us has ever seen you like that.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, “Deviants can feel negative emotions too. Besides, you have seen me sad before.”</p><p>“Not this sad. This is like ‘I just got my heart rejected by my crush’ upset.”</p><p>Connor sighed, going back to his work, “Where are we going today?”</p><p>“Holy shit, it really is that, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Can we go?” Connor asked, annoyed.</p><p>“It is! Aw, dipshit, I’m sorry. As much as I hate to say it, you’re a pleasure to be around.”</p><p>Connor rolled his eyes, “My father is sick. I thought you should know after you pulled that stunt a few nights back where we all sat out in the rain.”</p><p>“Oh right!” Gavin snorted, “He’s just weaker than me.”</p><p>“Detective…”</p><p>“Right, right, we’re going!” Gavin yelled, tossing the keys to Nines.</p><p>As soon as they got to their stakeout spot, Gavin expected to see the agents they had been sending in for the last few weeks. But they got a treat.</p><p>It was Mal and her partner.</p><p>Gavin pointed to the area, tapping Nines on the shoulder and asking him if he could tell Gavin what they were saying.</p><p>“I don’t understand why the boss is making us do this job again.” Mal’s partner, who never really got a name, muttered.</p><p>“Just shut up and do your job, Adrien. This is why you’re not being promoted like me.”</p><p>“You’ve been in the gang for who knows how long? How can I compete with that?”</p><p>“You’re really gonna call that part of it? Wow, you are clueless.” Mal snorted, “This lifestyle was chosen for me. You, on the other hand, had the advantage of wanting to choose this. Technically, with my logic, you should be ahead of me. Because you actually care about this.”</p><p>“Oh right, I forgot. You’re the most neutral thing in the gang.”</p><p>“Shut up, Nathaniel. I know which side I’m on and I know which one has the truth, but...I don’t like to get involved. Because people like living in a life of lies.”</p><p>“You’re just saying that because we recently learned your name meant truth.”</p><p>Mal didn’t mean truth, it meant star of the sea. Mal wasn’t her real name. The only person’s name he could think of that mean truth at that moment was Alice….could it be?</p><p>“I can destroy your kneecaps, Brian if you keep talking.”</p><p>“Try me.”</p><p>“Timothy, you wanna go?”</p><p>“That’s what I just said, right?”</p><p>“Fuck you. We actually have to focus here.”</p><p>“We need to go,” Gavin whispered to his two partners, pointing to an area where they could attack the duo.</p><p>As soon as the three had gotten to the spot though, they were surprised to not find anyone. Where did they go?</p><p>“Must be so upsetting, isn’t it?”</p><p>The three turned around to see Mal’s partner.</p><p>“What’s your plan?”</p><p>Mal’s partner gave a small smile, “And why would I tell you that? Come on, why don’t we just relax and listen to the radio? Would you like AMMMM or FMMMMM?”</p><p>“Where’s Mal?” Gavin asked, not paying attention to the reference made.</p><p>“Oh come on, not even gonna give me props on quoting that one?” Mal’s partner scowled, “Well, whatever.”</p><p>“Where’s your beloved partner?”</p><p>“Mal? She’s so fucking annoying. I finally got rid of her. You should be happy too. You don’t have to deal with her too.”</p><p>Mal was the closest thing he had to finding out about what happened with Alice. She knew things about his sister that he didn’t know and he was determined to find out the facts.</p><p>“I saw her here.”</p><p>“She left. She’s all ‘pretentious’ now that she got a higher job. She came here to give us the job and then she left.”</p><p>Great. Well...at least he could arrest the partner.</p><p>“You are under arrest for breaking and entering, resisting arrest, possible homicide, and possible robbery. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” Gavin took out his handcuffs.</p><p>Mal’s partner just shrugged, holding out his hands.</p><p>Gavin was surprised, “Uh...what?”</p><p>He looked at Connor, “Is this a trap?”</p><p>Connor narrowed his eyes, clearly trying to scan the place, “There’s a 79% certainty that this is a trap if he’s bluffing about Mal not being here. If he isn’t, it narrows down to 20%.”</p><p>“I don’t like those numbers.” Gavin inhaled, bracing for anything. “Keep your guard up. Stay behind me. And stay focused, I don’t want your little feelings to ruin this.”</p><p>Connor seemed to roll his eyes. Good, his feelings wouldn’t do anything.</p><p>Gavin stepped forward, cuffing the partner. “...that was too easy. Why would you allow me to do that?”</p><p>“Well...because it was either death or prison. And I like being alive.” Mal’s partner shrugged, “Also my name is Vincent and I didn’t kill anyone. I’m not part of that.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow, “Code name? Or real name?”</p><p>Vincent shrugged, “That’s for me to know and for you to find out.”</p><p>“I”m so confused. Why are you allowing us to do it?”</p><p>“Like I said, it was either death or prison.”</p><p>“Yeah, but...what do you mean death?”</p><p>Vincent sighed, “If ANYONE finds out you’re helping the police in the mob, or if you’ve become obsolete in your jobs, they kill you. That’s just how it goes. I became obsolete. My job was complete. They don’t need me anymore.”</p><p>Connor seemed to widen his eyes.</p><p>“What?” Gavin asked.</p><p>“Nothing.” Connor cleared his throat.</p><p>Vincent seemed to smirk.</p><p>“Connor-”</p><p>“I said it’s nothing.”</p><p>Vincent seemed to know what Connor was thinking.</p><p>Gavin growled, “What did you do with my partner?”</p><p>“Nothing. Just thought it might hit close to home.”</p><p>“Nines, lock him up in the car.”</p><p>“Got it.”</p><p>Gavin shook Connor, slapping him in the face, “What’s up, dipshit? You’re going to have to talk to me.”</p><p>Connor didn’t say anything, but he was looking behind Gavin.</p><p>Gavin followed his sight until he landed on a person.</p><p>Mal. Hidden in the shadows on a roof.</p><p>“What-”</p><p>“November 9th.”</p><p>“What the fuck are you saying?”</p><p>Connor didn’t say anything, just watching Mal parkour onto the different roofs of nearby small buildings in the shadow. She was doing something. But what? And why was Connor being so distant?</p><p>Mal was getting closer to them. She hadn’t noticed them looking at her yet.</p><p>“Dipshit. Tin can. Piece of plastic. Android. Connor. RK800. Hello? You gotta answer me, dick.” Gavin was getting worried. Did Mal have some sort of magnet on Connor that was making him like this?</p><p>“No.” Connor’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper.</p><p>“You’re going to have to speak up and specify what you mean.”</p><p>“She’s not going to make that jump.” Connor pointed.</p><p>Gavin looked up to see that the building was definitely too long for her to make that jump. His eyes widened as he radioed Nines, “Nines, we got a jumper. You’re going to need to help us here.”</p><p>“What about-”</p><p>“Look, I don’t care. I’m not going to let anyone kill themselves today! Go middle once you see us.” Gavin snarled as he was running, putting away his radio. He looked at Connor, “You flank left, I’ll go right.”</p><p>Connor stopped and Gavin raised an eyebrow before looking up, “What?”</p><p>Mal was just balancing on the ledge, humming to herself. Since it was only two stories, they could see and probably talk to her, but it was still fatal enough for her to die or at least get horrible injuries.</p><p>“What is she trying to do?” Gavin whispered as he pushed Connor towards the area where Mal was, running there too. He notified Nines to go up the building to stop Mal that way..</p><p>Gavin saw someone else near the roof with her. They were getting closer to Mal. Mal wasn’t trying to kill herself. She wasn’t trying to do anything besides just have fun balancing herself.</p><p>But someone had hired to kill her and they were going to push Mal off the edge.</p><p>Seconds before Mal was about to get pushed off, Connor yelled, “ALICE!”</p><p>Alice? What?</p><p>It seemed to get Mal’s attention, her looking at Connor. She was clearly off guard, giving the perfect moment for the person behind her to push her off.</p><p>Gavin watched as Mal was falling. He was trying to find a way to catch Mal.</p><p>Mal wasn’t screaming. She didn’t seem scared. She didn’t seem to expect it, but she seemed to accept her fate.</p><p>“Alice….” Connor murmured.</p><p>Why does Connor keep calling her that?</p><p>Gavin was scanning around. There was no way to do anything to stop her fall unless Connor caught her.</p><p>Gavin was crossing his fingers, pleading. Connor, please do one good thing in your life and save her.</p><p>And Connor did.</p><p>There was a 3-second period where Gavin wasn’t sure, but then he saw Connor was kneeling on the ground, holding Mal in his arms.</p><p>Gavin stood up, looking at the girl. He didn’t know what to say. It was clear Mal didn’t know either.</p><p>At least that’s what he thought as Connor seemed to exhale a smile, “You’re okay.”</p><p>Mal struggled to her feet before starting to run.</p><p>Gavin started to follow her, Connor soon after.</p><p>It was clear that Mal was shaken.</p><p>“We’re not here to hurt you.” Connor’s voice echoed throughout the alley that they were running in. “Trust me.”</p><p>There was no answer as Mal was running. But she was human. She couldn’t outrun Connor.</p><p>Gavin then saw a van suspiciously waiting. He saw Mal was turning towards it and connected the dots, yelling at Connor that Mal was probably going to go in the car and drive off.</p><p>He watched as Mal jumped into the trunk of the van, Connor following right after. Gavin huffed, “Dammit.”</p><p>He didn’t know what would happen. If there was anyone else in there or whatnot. He radioed in, checking on Nines.</p><p>“We only found one man, we’re bringing him in for questioning.”</p><p>“Good, he almost killed Mal.” Gavin sighed, “Keep in contact with your brother at all times. I don’t know what’s going to happen with him.”</p><p>“I already lost contact with him.”</p><p>“Well, shit.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Chapter 31</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice groaned, sitting back. She was tired.</p><p>Connor had been tied up with the help of the other people in the van, being deactivated the moment he had entered the van.</p><p>“What are you going to tell the boss?”</p><p>“I’ll figure it out.” Alice sighed. “Besides, it’s not your ass that’s on the line.”</p><p>As soon as all of them had gotten to the headquarters, Alice got out, looking back at the deactivated android.</p><p>As she looked at the blank look on Connor’s face, she remembered the wounded puppy dog look he gave her right before he was deactivated. She had a stomach ache.</p><p>Why did she have to feel? It seemed unnecessary. In more ways than one. The feelings came from thinking. Why did she have to think? She didn’t want to think about Connor and everything she made him go through. She didn’t want to think about her brother worrying for her or hurting her. She didn’t want to think about her father. She didn’t want to think about the things she went through. She just...needed to go back home. She needed to finish this mission and go back home. Back where Connor wasn’t an issue. Where her brother wasn’t an issue. Where nothing was haunting her.</p><p>“Alice! I’ve called your name about 3 times already! Are you okay?”</p><p>Alice cleared her throat, “Sorry. I’m just thinking. What were you saying?”</p><p>“Good job on capturing the officer. We now have leverage on the police force.”</p><p>Alice just nodded.</p><p>“I’ll give you a choice though. Let him go with his memory wiped….or kill him.”</p><p>She didn’t know which one was better. No one would be the same person without the same memories and experiences. It would get rid of the pain from Connor though. She knew that they wanted her to kill him though.</p><p>“I’ll give you until tonight to make up your mind, okay?”</p><p>Alice nodded as she looked at the SD card in hand.</p><p>Could she have the courage to do what needed to be done? She knew how to make another android. She knew how to install the same memories, she could steal all the parts. How could she not choose the right option?</p><p>“You weren’t attached to this android….were you?”</p><p>“No, of course not.” Alice lied. “It’s just a matter of my own moral compass.”</p><p>“Well, you should know that morals never got you anywhere. After all, it’s the whole reason you ended up here, right?”</p><p>It was also the reason she took the job as a police officer though. Because she wanted to put more right in the world. This was not where she thought it would go.</p><p>Alice nodded as she stood up, “I’m going to think about it.”</p><p>“You have until tonight.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0033"><h2>33. Chapter 32</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She was tapping the USB against the palm of her other hand.</p><p>What was she doing?</p><p>She sighed, trying to wrap her head around everything.</p><p>She inserted the USB into her computer before she could regret it.</p><p>“What are you doing, Alice?” She muttered as she was copying the files of her in his memory to the USB.</p><p>Could she stop? No. Did she want to? Yes.</p><p>She didn’t understand why she did.</p><p>She hesitated for just a second as she came across one specific day. October 1st, the day before her brother’s birthday.</p><p>
  <i>“In other words, fuck Gavin. I don’t care that his birthday’s tomorrow.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I want to understand why you dislike your brother so much. It’s clear of your disdain from your eagerness to talk about him.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Oh fuck off, man. What do you want me to say?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I’m asking you,” Connor replied, looking at the girl who was reading on his bed.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Fine…it’s because of nunya.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“What’s nunya?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Nunya business,” Alice remarked as she looked up from her book for a second, clearly proud of herself.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Connor gave an unamused look, “Haha, very funny. Are you really not going to tell me?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Alice sighed, sitting up, “Why do you want to know so much?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Because your brother has only talked about you in the highest regard, telling me all of your achievements and everything you would have done if you were still here. You, on the other hand, are constantly insulting him and will talk about how bad of a brother he was. I just want to understand humans and I feel like the Reed siblings are a good start with how complex they already are.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“So what? We’re your science experiment now?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Of course not. Unless you want to be-“</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Nope.” Alice shook her head, “Look, I don’t understand what you want me to say here. He stopped caring the day he graduated. When he found out I was missing, instead of looking for me, he deleted every trace of me off the world, making it seem like I never existed. He sold most of my stuff, which by the way, I had to buy, but he kept the one thing I cared about, which by the way is an asshole-y move.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You’re upset with him because he tried to make it seem like you never existed.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“It means he doesn’t care, Connor. So I don’t understand why you keep bullshitting me with the fact that Gavin has talked about me in the highest of power because he doesn’t care.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You’re scared that you’re just another person in the world that won’t make a difference. That’s why you didn’t want him to erase you, right? You wanted to know that someone actually got something from you. So when Gavin deleted every part of you and your friends had come out with the statement that they never liked you and your teachers never talked about you, even if it was fake, the fact that they all pretended like you never existed hurt you so much that you’ve carried this grudge with you for so long and-“</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Jeez, I didn’t expect you to get so into this. You’re making it so complicated.” Alice scoffed.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Am I?” Connor asked.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Alice just looked away, going back to her book, which Connor took as a fact that he was reading her really well.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Connor cupped Alice’s face, “You’re important to me.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Alice froze for a second before laughing, “I can’t believe that you think I’ll fall for that. I-“</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I’m serious,” Connor replied. “And you don’t have to hold a grudge on your brother for this. Learn to move on.”</i>
</p><p>As the video ended, Alice felt something slide down her cheek. Her hand flew up to try and catch it, only for her to look at it and be greeted by tears.</p><p>She realized she didn’t want to do it because this time…she’d be erasing herself from the only person she had impacted. The only person that said she was important and that she had inspired.</p><p>How could she do this to herself? How could she do this to Connor?</p><p>Despite her own retorts to try and stop herself, she continued to copy the files over and then deleted those same files in his actual memory.</p><p>She glanced at the deactivated Connor beside her in the van and sighed.</p><p>She knelt beside him and pressed her lips against his forehead, “I’m sorry…but I’m too close to my mission to let feelings get in the way. Then I’ll be out of your hair…forever.”</p><p>She drove to Connor’s house, pulling his body out of the trunk, and laid him by the door, in his hand the SD card.</p><p>No one would ever know she was there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is the speech referred to in Chapter 19, by the way.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0034"><h2>34. Chapter 33</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Nothing?” Gavin asked as soon as Nines came into the precinct. Nines had stopped by Connor’s house to check on anything that was out of the ordinary.</p><p>“He’s in the car. Dad’s trying to….get some questions out of him.”</p><p>“Who’s in the car?”</p><p>“Connor. His body was on the porch and his SD card was in his hand. I didn’t understand...until I helped reactivate him.”</p><p>“I don’t understand.”</p><p>“Maybe it’s better if we show you.”</p><p>Gavin followed Nines out into the parking lot where Connor and Hank were talking to each other.</p><p>“It can’t possibly be almost the end of October. My systems show it’s October and you guys keep saying that, but...yesterday was August 1st.”</p><p>“Connor, what’s going on? What do you remember?” Hank asked.</p><p>Connor clutched his head, “The day before our supposed stakeout. We were working on the case of the murder of Jonas Graham and his AX400 android lover.”</p><p> </p><p>“Anything after that?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow, “So you don’t remember watching someone almost kill one of the criminals we’ve been chasing for the past 3 months or so, or the fact that you called her by my sister’s name, or the fact that-”</p><p>“Alright, I think he gets the point.” Nines glared, “Even if he did, you’re pushing too much information at once at him.”</p><p>“Sorry, Detective, I don’t remember.”</p><p>“Nonononononononononono,” Gavin muttered as he paced around.</p><p>“What’s wrong, Detective Reed?”</p><p> </p><p>“If you can’t remember shit, it means that I have no answers to the fucking questions I have because you’ve been hiding a fuck ton of information from us. I know it. Tell me, Connor, are you pretending to lose your memory? Is this some sick joke? Why did you call Mal Alice? What else are you hiding from us? Connor, you better fucking tell me or I swear to God, I will rip your-”</p><p>“Gavin.” Nines calmly put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder, trying to stop him.</p><p>Gavin just shrugged Nines' hand off, going to pin Connor against the back of a car, “-goddamn arms off, or maybe I could just stab you, or rip your heart out and watch you slowly die as you watch your heart pumping blood that won’t flow to your veins. Maybe I could-”</p><p>“Gavin!” Nines tried again.</p><p>“-shoot your fucking brains out. Or even better, I could get you to self-destruct because you can’t fucking take stress like the fucking baby you are and-”</p><p>“Alright, that’s enough.” Hank sighed, pulling Connor behind him.</p><p>“Let me at him. You can’t tell me that you value this piece of shit you call a-”</p><p>Gavin was cut off by a slap.</p><p>“Connor is my son.”</p><p>“One that-”</p><p>“GAVIN!” Nines yelled.</p><p>Gavin groaned, looking at Nines, “WHAT?”</p><p>“Why are you doing this? What...happened?”</p><p>Gavin groaned, “Connor….is the only one with the answers to my questions. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need him. And he can’t tell me because they fucking wiped his memory. I don’t care if it might be not even related to my sister...he called Mal Alice the other day and….I just want to have hope for that bitch I called a sister because...she’s the only reason I’m even here now. Without her, I think I would’ve been...dead and I can’t give up on her again. So...goddammit, Connor...do you know anything?”</p><p>Connor was quiet, “I’m sorry….I don’t remember anything of the sorts about any Mal or Alice.”</p><p>Gavin sighed, “It’s fine.”</p><p>“Where are you going?”</p><p>“To smoke. Don’t fucking bother me.”</p><p>“Wait...Detective.”</p><p>“What?” Gavin glared at Connor, “What do you want to say that hasn’t already been said?”</p><p>“November 9th. That’s all I remember. Nothing more. Someone wanted me to remember the date.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Dun, dun, dun, suspense</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0035"><h2>35. Chapter 34</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mild Mentions of Suicide<br/>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What results did you get for that day?” Gavin asked as soon as he came back into the precinct in a separate room with his partners.</p><p>“Narrowing it down to the United States, there are still a lot of things. One thing that stood out to us though was….androids. Jericho rose up on this day.” Hank replied, “I think we have a classic case of the humans being shitty people again.”</p><p>“Do you know what they have in store?”</p><p>“No, that’s the thing. We never learned their plan because they never did anything while they were breaking and entering. It’s almost like-”</p><p>“THEY WERE THE FUCKING DISTRACTION, GODDAMMIT. How could I not see that?” Gavin groaned. “That’s why Vincent’s job was done. That’s why Mal isn’t helping him anymore. They’re launching their attack on November 9th and we still don’t know what it is.”</p><p>Before Gavin could try and say anything more, the lights had turned off.</p><p>He went to reach for his phone to realize that it was an infiltration and none of their devices were able to be seen.</p><p>He interlocked hands with Nines, being able to see the general tall shape of said android. “What do you see?”</p><p>“One person. Masked. Matches Mal’s body measurements though.”</p><p>“Okay, walk up to them slowly,” Gavin replied, allowing Nines to pull him along.</p><p>“I wouldn’t step any closer than that.”</p><p>Their voice was distorted and changed, but it echoed within the precinct. No one was moving. Gavin knew they were freaking out, but they were trying to find out where the person was.</p><p>“Show yourself.”</p><p>“Afraid I can’t do that. Would ruin my whole plan, but I’ve got to say...isn’t Markus coming back to Detroit and hosting a ball to celebrate the androids’ success on November 9th? Would be a shame if someone were to...ruin it.”</p><p>“What are you implying?” Gavin asked.</p><p>“Nothing. Nothing at all. Just...if you want to see your sister alive, you might want to not attend the festival.”</p><p>“My sister’s alive?”</p><p>“But of course. She never died. All she did was go out to play for a little while. We’ll take her home...if you let us have this one win.”</p><p>“What does that mean?”</p><p>“Don’t go to the ball and your sister will be safe. She’ll be let go and she can choose what she wants to do, whether it’s wanting to go back to believing in her brother again….or making herself a new life in New York.”</p><p>Gavin knew it was Mal. But could Mal be his sister?</p><p>“Are you really threatening me with my sister’s life?”</p><p>“I’m threatening your morals….but I guess you’d actually care about that puny girl’s life.”</p><p>“Why wouldn’t I?”</p><p>“She tried to kill herself the moment she saw you deleted every part of her existence. That everyone pretended like she never even existed. She thought you gave up on her because the only person she wanted to matter to didn’t matter for her. I’d think that’s enough to think you wouldn’t.”</p><p>“Mal.”</p><p>“Hi, Detective Reed.” Mal tilted her head, which Gavin assumed was her smiling under the mask and dark.</p><p>“Did I ever tell you...thank you?”</p><p>“What for?”</p><p>“You spared Connor’s life. I mean, you’re a little shit for wiping his memories, but...thank you.”</p><p>“I...no problem, I guess. I just didn’t want your sister getting up in my face with morals.” Mal snorted.</p><p>“You’re not a bad person, are you?” Gavin asked, “We overheard you saying that you were forced into this. What are they up to?”</p><p>“I’m not telling you.” Mal snorted, “I meant I was forced into the department. If it were up to me, I’d be doing worse things. All I’m telling you is that if you want your sister alive, you’ll stay away from that ball.”</p><p>“Warning received,” Gavin replied.</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>With that, Mal started to leave, but immediately, everyone tried running after her.</p><p>“Wait, Connor and Nines, stay back, she’ll deactivate you if you get too close.” Gavin replied, “Hank, do you have a light?”</p><p>“No, she took our phones, remember?”</p><p>“They’re on the desks, you dumb fucks.” Mal snorted. “Anyways, gonna dip. Remember my warning.”</p><p>“Connor, Nines, Hank, go into the hallway.”</p><p>“No way, she’s a dangerous criminal and I’m not-”</p><p>“Trust me. I just need to talk to her. Alone. I have a question.”</p><p>“Oh? Questions? I’m interested.”</p><p>“Gavin-”</p><p>“She’s not going to kill me.” Gavin rolled his eyes, “Please just trust me.”</p><p>“Five minutes and then we come back in here.”</p><p>“I mean I could just shoot him right now and clean it up in less than 3 minutes-”</p><p>“She’s not going to.” Gavin sighed as his partners walked out.</p><p>“Alright, what’s up?” Mal asked.</p><p>Gavin grabbed his phone on the ground, opening the flashlight. He could see the mask Mal had on. She had her hair down.</p><p>“Show me your face.”</p><p>“That’s not a question.”</p><p>“I won’t rat you out unless I see your actual appearance again. Show me what you look like without the contacts, without all the makeup making you look like a different person, everything.”</p><p>Mal seemed to sigh, taking off the mask and taking out her contacts. She wasn’t wearing any makeup.</p><p>She smiled at Gavin, who knew why she looked so familiar the first time he saw her.</p><p>“Hi, Gavin.”</p><p>Gavin’s breath hitched, his voice was barely even a whisper, “Hi, Alice.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>THIS CHAPTER WAS SO BAD, I'M SORRY</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0036"><h2>36. Chapter 35</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before Alice could do anything, Gavin was already lunging at her. She winced before realizing...he wasn’t going to hit her or hurt her.</p><p>Gavin was...hugging her? In fact, he was hugging her so tightly that she almost couldn’t breathe.</p><p>She couldn’t-</p><p>“I missed you. I’m sorry, it’s my fault.” Gavin sighed.</p><p>Alice was quiet. Being in Gavin’s arms made her realize that Gavin was never the bad guy in her story. No….she had been blaming Gavin for everything that happened to her, but she realized it wasn’t Gavin’s fault. It was hers.</p><p>“I just….I-”</p><p>She understood what he was trying to say. Sometimes looking at hope can be the worst thing in the world when you know the truth will be the opposite, so you delete every part of the hope in order for the truth to not hurt as much.</p><p>“I know….it’s my fault,” Alice whispered, her arms slowly wrapping tightly around her older brother. “I….miss you too.”</p><p>All this time she had been blaming the wrong person. It wasn’t Gavin’s fault. It was hers. She promised herself she’d never hold a grudge for the people that wronged her because it would make her just as bad. She promised herself that nothing could justify hurting the people she loved and yet she was bending her morals for it.</p><p>Gavin’s next words were shocking for her.</p><p>“Promise me you’ll stay safe, okay?” Gavin replied.</p><p>Alice gave a tiny smile. She couldn’t.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>Another lie until she could right her wrongs. If it meant she died in the process, she’d accept that fate. She just...needed to make sure that her mission was accomplished and that Gavin and Connor would be okay. She had been the villain of her story for far too long.</p><p>“Thank you.” Gavin smiled.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Awwww, lovely sibling moments</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0037"><h2>37. Chapter 36</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been two days since Alice’s last visit to the precinct. Gavin realized Connor must’ve known that Alice and Mal were the same person, but there must have been some reason why he kept it a secret. Why Alice was even doing it in the first place.</p><p>Gavin knew that Alice wasn’t working for evil. He saw it the moment she took off her mask because the look on her face represented a broken person who just wanted things to be right again.</p><p>But Gavin remembered what she had warned him. She would die if he went to stop the ball. It was a moral dilemma for him. Save his sister….or stop the plan happening at the ball. He knew Alice wanted him to pick the latter option, but he couldn’t think of allowing his sister to die.</p><p>“Detective, it’s getting pretty late. I think I’m going to head out.”</p><p>“Where are you going?” Gavin raised an eyebrow. “You have nothing to do.”</p><p>“I’m going to get a drink.” Connor rolled his eyes, “It’ll take my mind off the constant confusion.”</p><p>“Cool, have fun.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>SORRY IT'S SO SHORT, BUT I WANTED THE NEXT PART TO BE BROKEN UP BY ANOTHER CHAPTER</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0038"><h2>38. Chapter 37</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Is this seat taken?”</p><p>Alice jumped as she saw Connor’s face.</p><p>Realizing he wouldn’t recognize her, she sighed, motioning towards the seat. She was swirling her glass as she heard Connor order a glass of thirium.</p><p>She snorted, “Rough night? I don’t usually see you-I mean androids in general-around here.”</p><p>She groaned internally. Nice save.</p><p>Connor nodded, “Just a case we’re solving and we haven’t gotten anywhere. It also doesn’t help that I’ve seemingly lost most of my memories.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” Alice asked as she looked at the android across from her.</p><p>“I was deactivated by the criminal we’re supposed to be catching. They took out every part of my memory between August to now.”</p><p>Alice felt the USB in her jacket grow heavier, “Man…that sucks. I don’t know what I’d do without my memory.”</p><p>“I’m not upset about the memories. I can get the important ones back from a partner of mine.” Connor sighed, “But…I know something else is missing. Someone really important to me. They took them out too and I don’t know who it is because no one else knows what I’m talking about.”</p><p>Alice didn’t say anything, just swirling her drink around and sipping little by little.</p><p>“I don’t know…I just want to remember again.”</p><p>Alice felt a feeling of guilt well up inside of her. Who was everyone without memories to shape who they were?</p><p>“You must really care about this person for you to know that something’s missing.” Alice snorted, “Aren’t androids not supposed to know if memories were missing?”</p><p>“Well…we can put two and two together when we see a time or date missing, but yeah. For the most part, we aren’t supposed to know. I think a part of me really must have felt something that I had never felt before.”</p><p>“…like love?”</p><p>Connor thought about it before smiling, “Yeah…like love.”</p><p>Alice suddenly knew that she couldn’t stay there if she didn’t want everything to come falling down. She was too close to finishing her mission to let her feelings get in the way.</p><p>She downed her drink and smiled, “I hope you find your memories and you get them back.”</p><p>“Wait what about you? Don’t you have a story you want to tell me? After all, you’re at the bar for some reason.”</p><p>Alice sighed, grabbing her jacket from her seat, “I don’t have a story; I’m just a girl in a bar.”</p><p>With that, she walked off before everything could overwhelm her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is my favorite chapter and I don't know why, but it makes me so sad and so happy at the same time.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0039"><h2>39. Chapter 38</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mild Abuse<br/>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You know, I thought you’d stay on our side. After so long, I thought you’d be loyal to us.”</p><p>Alice whipped her head around, trying to find where her boss’s voice was coming from.</p><p>“But look what I find in little Alice’s room. A phone with a contact...who she’s been calling every week to give updates.”</p><p>Alice was looking around, “Where are you?”</p><p>Her boss stepped out, holding her phone. “Maybe you should be more...careful.”</p><p>Alice was quiet. She’d talk her way out of it when she got the chance to.</p><p>“Tsk, tsk, tsk, I can’t believe you. I guess I should just keep a better look out for you. Apparently, nothing has changed. Still trying to do the right thing, huh Alice?”</p><p>“I-”</p><p>She was cut off by a slap to the face. Clearly not the right time to speak up.</p><p>“Do you know the punishment for helping the police? It’s death, Alice. Death….oh, but I know you’d be okay with death if it meant that everyone else was okay, so why don’t we switch things up?”</p><p>“What do you mean?” Alice asked stiffly, waiting for another slap that came soon after. Still not the time for her to speak up.</p><p>“Your brother. With a snap of my fingers, I could kill him. But I’m not going to. I know you got a little too attached to one of the officers. So…”</p><p>“NO!” Alice yelled before she could stop herself.</p><p>“Hm...interesting. I’ll keep that in mind. Which one are you more attached to?”</p><p>“Anyone but them...please,” Alice begged. She knew it would be useless. Her feelings got in the way once again. Now they were doomed to death.</p><p>“We’ll see. But in the meanwhile, you’re coming with me, you insolent bitch.”</p><p>Alice felt herself being dragged and she knew she was her teenage self again. Hoping for someone to come save her, but knowing no one would. Hoping that she wouldn’t get hurt, but having to stop herself from crying after getting hurt. She didn’t need those memories again, why…..why?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0040"><h2>40. Chapter 39</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mild Abuse<br/>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was November 9th. Gavin was nervously playing with his fidget cubes, looking around. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen.</p><p>The ball would start in a few minutes, androids slowly pouring into the building. Gavin felt so out of place, but he needed to focus on trying to stop the sabotage.</p><p>“What’s the update?” Gavin whispered into his walkie-talkie inside his suit.</p><p>“Only androids entering,” Connor replied.</p><p>“No sign of any of the gang outside,” Hank replied.</p><p>“Nines?” Gavin asked, after not hearing from him.</p><p>There was a bit of silence before Nines’ pained voice came through, “The attack has already started. Connor, stay away from the tables. They have magnets. It’s taking control of me.”</p><p>Gavin looked around as he saw the androids around were starting to hold onto their heads in pain, ones that were trying to fight back against the attack, and most of all, the ones that already had blank expressions.</p><p>“What’s happening?” Markus asked. He was one of the few that hadn’t gone near the tables.</p><p>“Markus, don’t go near the tables. There’s been an attack. We need you to stay safe.”</p><p>Markus nodded as he stayed put, watching as his people were being taken over. Gavin went over to one of the blank and expressionless androids.</p><p>“What happened?” He demanded.</p><p>“Hello, I am an RZ400 model. How can I be of service?” The android blinked robotically. Almost...as if he was reset.</p><p>“Shit.” Gavin yelled into his walkie-talkie, “They’re being reset. They’re trying to make them slaves again and it’s working. Connor, stay where you are. Hank, we need to find all the magnets. Break the ones on the table and we need to go to the other places that they were distracting us in to break them. Hopefully, that should take out the link the androids and the magnets have.”</p><p>“Uh….huge problem, Detective. There’s a….really pretty girl here who looks….abused and I want to help her.”</p><p>“What color are her eyes?”</p><p>“Purple? I don’t know if that’s possible, but…”</p><p>“Shit, I’ll be right there. Are you still in your position from the beginning of the ball?”</p><p>“Yeah...but she’s screaming for them to stop. I have to-”</p><p>“Connor, stay the fuck where you are until I get there. I’m sure it’s a trap.”</p><p>“She sees me, she’s...scared. She looks...familiar. She doesn’t want me to help.”</p><p>Gavin could hear Alice’s voice on the other end, “Don’t come any closer! It’s a trap!”</p><p>“You’re hurt!” Connor was exclaiming.</p><p>“Please...they’ll hurt you too. I don’t….I don’t….CONNOR!”</p><p>Connor’s communication cut out and Gavin groaned as he was running towards Connor’s area. “Hank, keep searching for those magnets. We need to stop this.”</p><p>“Got it.”</p><p>Gavin grit his teeth as he was running. As he got to Connor’s position, he saw there was a group on the other side. An android staring blankly--Connor had been reset, a girl trying to escape from restraints--Alice was chained up, and another person, one who probably was the leader of the gang.</p><p>As he got closer, he noticed Alice was...cut and bruised. She had been hit.</p><p>“Alice-”</p><p>“Gavin! GET AWAY!” Alice screamed. She was almost sobbing, “Please….”</p><p>“What did you do?” Gavin asked the leader coldly. “What’s your goal?”</p><p>“Androids were made to serve us. I’m only taking back what was rightfully ours. Shouldn’t you be happy though? You were always against androids-”</p><p>“They’re people, dickhead! It might have taken me some time to get used to it, but they are alive! Also, let go of my fucking sister.”</p><p>“GAVIN, PLEASE GET AWAY!” Alice was yelling, “THEY’RE GOING TO KILL YOU! Please….I already lost Connor. I don’t need to lose you too.”</p><p>Gavin raised an eyebrow as he stepped back. Connor and Alice must’ve had some sort of bond. He would get the story out later, once he finished with this prick.</p><p>Gavin backed up, looking for a magnet.</p><p>Gavin couldn’t find the one that could have gotten to Connor until he saw a dot on Connor’s neck. They put the magnet on him.</p><p>“Shit.” Gavin cursed, knowing there wasn’t a way to try and revert Connor back without getting hurt.</p><p>“Just leave….please.” Alice begged, “Go save the day.”</p><p>“Be quiet, you bitch.” The leader growled, slapping Alice and quieting her.</p><p>Gavin looked at Alice, “You’re my sister. I can’t leave you. I can’t lose you again.”</p><p>Alice opened her mouth to talk before deciding against it. Her eyes said it all though. If he didn’t go, both of them would die, and the two android partners would have no way of being themselves again.</p><p>Gavin looked around. The magnets had to be coded to reset the androids, which would cause a lot of electricity if there was some sort of electronic holding the code in the magnet. Where could they get all that electricity?</p><p>Then he realized...the warehouse where Nines and he had fought Ada. it would give enough power.</p><p>Gavin started to rush to the area, radioing in, “What’s the update, dickhead? I’m going to need you to go to a location and help me. Connor’s down.”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>More silence.</p><p>After a few minutes, Gavin realized that Hank must have been stopped by someone.</p><p>“Dammit. Stupid magnets on the androids.” He cursed.</p><p>This was a one-man mission.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0041"><h2>41. Chapter 40</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice was weak. She knew she was, but she had to escape.</p><p>“Watch over the girl. Make sure she’s not going to do anything. I’m going to check on the brother and make sure he doesn’t ruin our plan.”</p><p>Alice sighed under her breath, scanning around. The lock was electronic and it would tighten every single time she got the combination wrong. She had to get Connor to hack through it...but how could she get to him without giving suspicion to the others?</p><p>Alice started to scoot to where Connor was, pulling her constraints under her body, so her hands were not behind her back anymore.</p><p>She was still being watched as she scooted over to Connor.</p><p>Connor was staring at her with the blankest expression and Alice stared back, not knowing what to do or say.</p><p>“What? Aren’t you gonna pull some hero shit and confess your love to bring him back to life?” The guard watching her snorted.</p><p>“You...aren’t gonna stop me?”</p><p>“My girlfriend is an android. I didn’t realize this was the plan, so….if you could do anything to save Detroit, I’d suggest you do it now. I see how you look at him…”</p><p>“Do you know the code to my constraints?”</p><p>“Sorry, I...don’t.”</p><p>Alice groaned, looking at Connor. “Okay...I know I’m not going to be able to say this when you’ve activated again...but I’m infatuated with you….uh...as you put it, I’m attracted to you romantically too. And it’s hard for me to say this because I was never taught how to deal with these feelings? I used to just ignore them, just like I am doing now, but...I care about you more than everything. You...helped me see the truth when my judgment was clouded. You...finally helped me to live up to my name again. I….no, I can’t do this.”</p><p>Alice just shook her head as she pulled the magnet out of Connor, waiting for the overriding of the code to reset him would be deleted and Connor would be back to normal.</p><p>Connor seemed to blink until he was looking at Alice with the most genuine look ever. It was him again.</p><p>“Connor.” Alice smiled, relieved.</p><p>“Just a girl in a bar, huh?” Connor chuckled, “It sounds like you knew me beforehand.”</p><p>Alice gave a small smile, “There’s no time to lose, can you hack through these handcuffs?”</p><p>Connor nodded, looking at the electronic handcuffs, unlocking them in a matter of seconds. “Hey...but I’d like some answers afterward.”</p><p>“Of course. But let’s do that when we’re not saving the entire android population from becoming slaves again.”</p><p>“Good idea.”</p><p>Alice smiled at the guard, “Thank you. I’ll make sure that your girlfriend will be returned to you.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Even the guard's rooting for them</p><p>Also this is such an anticlimatic confession but I didn't know what else to say</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0042"><h2>42. Chapter 41</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gavin was at the warehouse when he saw the source of power. He had to stop it somehow...but how could he do it alone?</p><p>Then he saw two familiar faces at the corner, motioning towards him.</p><p>Gavin snuck towards the two, “You two are okay!”</p><p>Alice and Connor both smiled. Connor was wearing the clothing he wore to Jericho, hiding his LED and blending in. Alice was wearing familiar clothes he thought he saw….the pair he bought for Connor’s friend when the two had been overpainting his room.</p><p>Gavin rolled his eyes, knowing he would talk to Connor about it later, “What’s the plan?”</p><p>Alice pointed to the people in the back, “They’re all androids. Reset, of course. They will outpower us. Connor, maybe not, but I don’t think he can handle 15 of them. If we can get the magnets off of the androids, they will snap out of it.”</p><p>“How does that work? When androids are reset, the code should delete all their memories and make them a regular android again.”</p><p>“Well….the way they coded it was as if they just covered up the memories and deviancy to reset them….like if you were to make all that code comments and then just put new code at the bottom.”</p><p>“So...if we take the magnet off, they’ll be themselves again?”</p><p>Alice just nodded, “I’ll go in first. One of you call in the other human officers and the other has to be the distraction.”</p><p>“I’ll be it. They’ll be expecting me. They still think that you and Connor are being held captive.”</p><p>Alice bit her lip before sighing, “I can’t argue with that logic. Stay safe. Connor, you too, okay? I’ll see you guys after the fight.”</p><p>The three nodded before going onto their plan.</p><p>“Detroit Police Department, put your hands up in the air and keep them there!” Gavin yelled as he walked in, holding his gun.</p><p>The androids were staring blankly at Gavin as the few humans put their hands up.</p><p>“Such a shame that you came here….instead of saving your sister.” The leader raised an eyebrow, “I thought you cared about her.”</p><p>Gavin paid no attention to the leader, knowing they were only trying to make him squirm, “You are under arrest for breaking and entering and hate crime. You have the right to remain sil-”</p><p>“Who could have known? She would have lived if you were there to save her. Instead...you chose a bunch of machines to save. I wonder how she feels about it.”</p><p>Gavin had to focus. Alice was safe. She was helping him.</p><p>“-ent. Anything you say can and will be used-”</p><p>“Or is it because your significant other is one of these….machines?”</p><p>“-against you in a court of law. You-”</p><p>“Who would have known? If you had actually searched for her before, you could have found her.”</p><p>They were just trying to get to his head. Focus.</p><p>“-have the right...the right to an attorney. If you cannot-”</p><p>“Just give up, Detective Reed. You know you won’t be able to do anything. We took away your partners. Now we took away your sister. We can make your life….so much worse.”</p><p>“-afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” Gavin finished, narrowing his eyes and taking out his handcuffs. “Do not resist arrest.”</p><p>Gavin knew he intimidated some of the members, so those were not the ones he had to worry about. He just had to worry about the ones that seemed...confident.</p><p>“How are you going to stop us?”</p><p>“I will not hesitate to shoot if you do not follow what I say. Step outside. There are officers outside.”</p><p>A few of the humans followed, but the androids and the leader stayed put.</p><p>He saw Alice in the corner. She had a gun. Gavin tried not to give attention, so he kept warning the others to follow.</p><p>Suddenly, there were 5 shots. Alice had shot into the ground. What...was she trying to do?</p><p>He realized what she was doing as soon as he remembered there were 5 people that had obeyed. She was trying to scare them, or even cause a few to go check.</p><p>“Your officers shot my men.” The leader crossed their arms, “I didn’t realize the police had the guts.”</p><p>Gavin knew no one in his precinct would have ever shot them to death, at most injuring them, whether innocent or guilty, but he had to play along. “I-”</p><p>“Good. I needed to get rid of them anyway. They can’t give you any information now.”</p><p>Oh, you sick fuck.</p><p>He noticed the leader motioned all the androids to go check where the gunshots came from. Would Alice be able to hold off that many?</p><p>“Come on, Gavin. Don’t you think that things would be so much better if you had total control of your boyfriend? Being able to please when you wanted, being able to take a hit, cooking and cleaning for you...everything. You have TOTAL control.”</p><p>Gavin felt shivers run down his spine. It was sick. That wasn’t love. He embraced all of Nines, the flaws and all.</p><p>Making Nines obey was sick and they were sick for suggesting it.</p><p>“That’s...not love. That’s just being a sick maniac who has no one to love him.”</p><p>“Well...isn’t that what you are? A maniac who didn’t appreciate androids until your partner came along.”</p><p>“How do you know this?”</p><p>“I know a lot of things, Gavin….but this? This was because I have people everywhere. People who knew you and knew you became closed off after you realized it was your fault she disappeared.”</p><p>“It’s not...my fault.”</p><p>“You sound unsure.” The leader smirked, “Maybe because a little part of you knows...if you were there for her, she wouldn’t have disappeared. She wouldn’t have been taken by someone.”</p><p>“I-no…”</p><p>“You KNOW that it’s your fault, Gavin. Just admit it.”</p><p>Gavin knew that the leader was getting to him and they knew it too. Gavin couldn’t help the doubt creeping in until he heard a cocking noise of a gun.</p><p>“It’s never been Gavin’s fault. It’s always been yours and now the game is over, <i>boss</i>.”</p>
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<a name="section0043"><h2>43. Chapter 42</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Swearing</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alice’s eyes were cold, devoid of all emotion. She couldn’t show any fear or anger.</p><p>The leader crossed their arms, turning around towards Alice, “Oh yeah? What makes you say that? My game has only just begun.”</p><p>Alice smirked as Connor and Hank came out from the shadows, “Because...unlike you, I have backup.”</p><p>Gavin took out handcuffs, “You are under arrest for-oomph!”</p><p>Before he could finish the sentence, he was pushed to the ground by the leader as they tried to make a run for it.</p><p>Alice was the first one to react, running after them. Gavin had gotten up and soon, the other three were chasing as well.</p><p>At one point, Connor had passed Alice, tackling the leader to the ground and the other three caught up, trying to help Connor arrest the leader.</p><p>It was a struggle, but they managed to get a hold of the leader, pulling her arms back to handcuff her.</p><p>Alice huffed, trying to catch her breath, “Do we need to say the whole speech again? You’ve said it once already, and you were about to repeat it.”</p><p>“We should.” Connor raised an eyebrow, “it gets you in the habit of-”</p><p>Alice groaned, “Of course you’re still annoying after getting your memory taken away. Gavin, just lock them up. I don’t want to see their face anymore.”</p><p>Gavin just pulled the leader along, but before he could react, the leader had pushed him away again and had stolen his gun.</p><p>“Dammit! Wouldn’t you think we would learn from last time?” Alice cursed as she cocked her gun, holding her gun, “Drop the gun and I won’t shoot.”</p><p>“That seems like a horrible idea. I think I’ll just stay with the gun.”</p><p>“Come on, don’t play these games. I know you can’t get out of those and you know that I’m not going to let you go. So...start playing by my rules….or die.”</p><p>Gavin glanced at Alice, whose eyes showed she wasn’t going to make true of her promise, but….she was making it seem like it.</p><p>“Or….better option, you could die.”</p><p>Alice raised an eyebrow before motioning at Connor to grab the leader.</p><p>As soon as Connor took a step towards the leader, they shot Alice, dropping the gun and walking away.</p><p>Alice clutched her side where she was shot, kneeling down. When the others tried to see if she was okay, she growled, “Go after them. I’ll be fine.”</p><p>Despite everything, Connor stayed with her, helping her lay down as she was having trouble breathing. He helped her apply a tourniquet.</p><p>“You okay?” Connor asked, worried.</p><p>“Yeah, no, I’m fine. I just have a giant bullet wound.”</p><p>Connor chuckled, “Don’t worry. We’ll get you an ambulance. They’re almost here, just stay alive.”</p><p>Alice nodded, “Man if I wouldn’t kill for a bulletproof vest.”</p><p>“You’re bleeding out and you’re still making jokes?”</p><p>“You’re enjoying them.” Alice rebutted.</p><p>“Just keep your eyes open. They’re almost here.” Connor replied, “And I know I don’t remember you, but I think you would’ve been a good friend.”</p><p>Alice snorted, “I was the worst friend, but...I enjoyed having your company. Made me feel at home.”</p><p>Connor just smiled.</p><p>Alice groaned, “Dude, I’m getting really tired. I feel like they aren’t going to make it in time...so if they don’t, I’d like you to have this.”</p><p>“No, no, no, please don’t close your eyes. You can’t-“</p><p>“It’s okay, Connor.” Alice smiled, “It’s okay.”</p><p>Connor was starting to become panicked.</p><p>Alice just pulled out the USB, “This has all the answers to your questions. Just...download all this shit or whatever and you’ll get your answers.”</p><p>“That’s not how androids work.”</p><p>Alice cupped Connor’s face, smiling, “I know, but let me believe.”</p><p>“You just wanted to put blood on my face and make me look like I murdered you, huh?”</p><p>“Guilty...but seriously, Connor, I know you don’t remember anything but-“</p><p>“You’re that person, aren’t you? The person I knew I was missing but I wasn’t sure who.”</p><p>Alice just smiled, “Yeah, yeah, I was.”</p><p>“Well, I’m glad to have met you then.”</p><p>Alice just felt her eyes drooping.</p><p>There were sirens in the background before everything finally went black.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I swear Alice is literally my spirit animal, PLEASE</p><p>Also I have so many tests tomorrow and I have decided to just decease. I'll upload the rest of the chapters tomorrow, but leave off on a cliffhanger for now!</p><p>Mwah hah hah hah hah</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Follow my <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/wolfprincesszola">tumblr</a> for updates!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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